


Nosedive

by transriot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Half-Siblings, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, She/They pronouns for pidge, Slow To Update, Superpowers, The Gangs All Here, tags will grow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-01-21 17:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 71,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12462924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transriot/pseuds/transriot
Summary: Becoming a superhero had been an accident. Literally.Lance wasn’t the type who had been born with his abilities, they weren’t gifted to him by a god or some weird genetic mutation, he hadn’t been tortured until his body went beyond the normal human expectation, and he hadn’t died and come back to life like some people had.It’s estimated that about 6% percent of the population was a super of some sort. This was including abilities that didn’t seem that useful, like fire breathing or being able to levitate small objects. Then again, that had been an estimate taken back when understanding how someone was a super and why they were a super wasn’t really well known. Even now it still confused scientists. They couldn’t figure out the exact reason why some people developed abilities and others didn’t, for some it was genetic and for others there was no traceable cause. And most people didn’t report if they had abilities or not which made it hard to count how many supers there were.Point being, Lance had a very, very, very, slim chance of having powers. Incredibly slim.





	1. Lance

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my work, buy me a coffee?

Becoming a superhero had been an accident. Literally.

Lance wasn’t the type who had been born with his abilities, they weren’t gifted to him by a god or some weird genetic mutation, he hadn’t been tortured until his body went beyond the normal human expectation, and he hadn’t died and come back to life like some people had.

It’s estimated that about 6% percent of the population was a super of some sort. This was including abilities that didn’t seem that useful, like fire breathing or being able to levitate small objects. Then again, that had been an estimate taken back when understanding how someone was a super and why they were a super wasn’t really well known. Even now it still confused scientists. They couldn’t figure out the exact reason why some people developed abilities and others didn’t, for some it was genetic and for others there was no traceable cause. And most people didn’t report if they had abilities or not which made it hard to count how many supers there were.

Point being, Lance had a very, very, very, slim chance of having powers. Incredibly slim. At least in terms of his age group, since the amount of people with abilities was growing with each generation (it was estimated that it would double in percentage with each generation).

His abilities had never meant for him — Lance didn’t think that they had been meant for anyone since it wasn’t like it was scripted into the universe that powers were given to people for any specific reason. But yet here he was, nine months down the road and he was sitting in some uncomfortable chair.

All because had managed to eat something that he shouldn’t have. Which was probably the weirdest way to get a super power. Not that Lance was really complaining because he was glad his skills were finally being appreciated. He already was pretty good at shooting, but then he developed his powers and he got worse because everything became distracting around him.

Everything was so damn distracting, especially when he was around other people.

When he had first noticed that there were colors around people’s figures, Lance had freaked out. The first person he had called was his best friend, since Lance didn’t know how to approach it with his family. Hunk had freaked out as soon as Lance had told him about the sudden colors around others, driving towards his house.

The two of them had a long talk about what was going on. Hunk had explained everything to him, and even though the information had been overwhelming Lance really had no choice but to nod his head and listen.

Hunk had made a few calls, sounding panicky the entire time. His best friend had never been incredibly good underneath pressure, and he seemed especially freaked out this time around. Lance was still freaking out. Even though Hunk had attempted to calm Lance down, it failed since he was hardly able to calm down himself.

It didn’t help when he brought up the name Voltron.

Which was currently why Lance was in an uncomfortable plastic chair at the moment. Voltron was originally started back up in the ‘70s when the people began to show the development of abilities that had once been seen as impossible. It was originally started as a response to rise of crime that had happened, Voltron becoming one of the main agencies to deal with super villains.

The place also became a safe haven of sorts, since Voltron opened its doors to young people with abilities who seemed promising for crime fighting. Lance wasn’t sure how they found people with powers, although he was pretty sure that they looked through the archives that the government had started to keep on people with powers and the way that their powers were presenting. That was a lot of paperwork to look through, but Lance was pretty sure that they must’ve had someone to scan through it (they probably still had some way to do it).

Back in the late 1900s Voltron was pretty large. It had taken some down sizing in the recent years, since there wasn’t any real reason for a large amount of superheroes to be running along the streets. The public still viewed it as positive, the main building often giving tours to those who were curious. Most of the people who worked there weren’t really superheroes at this point.

Lance remembered going on a tour once. It had been on a school field trip when they were originally going over the rise of super heroes and villains, and how things had slowed down once the Galra had been disbanded.

He hadn’t imagined that he would be in some sort of interview with the apparent leader of Voltron (was she considered a CEO? Lance wasn’t sure what her official title was). The entire situation was incredibly bizarre. Lance’s brain was still working through the fact that Hunk had connections to Voltron in the first place.

Papers being dropped on the desk in front of him brought his attention to the woman there.

The woman in front of him was talking, she had brown skin and such white (did it have a blue tint to it?), fluffy hair. Lance was pretty sure that her name was Allura. Right. Allura. There were little pink marks underneath her cheeks and her eyes reminded him of a kaleidoscope.

Lance thought that she was a total babe. Any other situation and he would be attempting to charm her. But this wasn’t a normal situation.

The expression on her face was anything but kind, it wasn’t mean however. She had narrowed his eyes at him, her mouth was set into a hard line and he was reminded of disappointed teachers, or the looks he saw his mom put on before she yelled at one of his older siblings.

Lance could hardly focus on her actual appearance though. He could feel that she wasn’t angry, not completely. She was more exasperated, confused, lost. There was a shimmer of color around her, mainly floating at her head. At the base it seemed to be a light pink, but there were different colors mixed in there at well.

Lance really wished that the colors would just calm down. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes.

What had been in that soup he had eaten?

“Lance McClain, correct?” Allura’s voice was nice, she had an accent which made her sound more official.

“Um, yeah,” Lance nodded his head.

“Age seventeen, friends with Hunk, and sudden development of powers,” Allura tapped her fingers on her desk. She looked over at the ginger haired man in the room and sighed. Lance didn’t remember his name. “Coran,” she said, oh that was good timing, “I thought you said we got rid of all of the Arusian substance. How did he even get to it?”

Lance still couldn’t believe that Hunk had powers. Powers that he had hidden from Lance for years. They had been friends since they were little kids, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit betrayed.

“Well, I thought we did,” Coran put his hand on his chin as he thought. Lance darted his eyes between the two of them. Coran was a blue color, also mixed in with other colors that had to be his current emotional state. “Nope. No. Wait. I think there was one sector that had some left but it was so miniscule it didn’t even matter, it must have just awakened something that was already dormant in the boy. On an average person they would’ve just gotten a bad stomach ache,” Coran nodded his head.

Lance couldn’t help but perk up a little bit. “You mean that I already had powers!?”

Allura and Coran both looked at him. Tilting her head, Allura blinked at him slowly. “Not exactly? You must have a mutation within your bloodline that gives you the chance to have abilities however…”

“However,” Coran took over, “Considering that you didn’t even appear on our sensors until you ate the arusian soup, you wouldn’t have developed powers unless you came into contact with a certain chemical that must have been inside of the soup. Or maybe it was the combination of chemicals. Your children wouldn’t have developed powers, your children’s children’s might, but who knows?

“The powers were more likely to remain undetectable for generations. And there was no way of telling how your abilities were going to manifest, it was sort of like a lottery for you. Maybe your children will have different abilities -- if you’re still able to reproduce. There’s no idea of telling what the soup might have done to the rest of your body. You might drop dead!” Coran sounded a little too chipper, but Lance noticed how nervous he felt, it basically smacked him in the face, “Okay, you most likely won’t drop dead,” there was uncertainty in his tone.

Lance squinted at the two of them. He opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was a spluttering of noises.

Eventually he just let out a resigned sigh and slumped into his chair. Developing super powers was not going how Lance always imagined it would when he was younger.

“We can offer you a place here. Obviously you’ll be fine to stay with your family, but Lance we could help you out. Voltron was started to help people with powers or exceptional skills,” Allura’s tone had softened from when they had first started talking. There was a small smile on her face, her brows were furrowed. She reminded Lance of a teacher now, how old was she? She couldn’t be much older than him.

“Obviously you already know that Hunk is one of us, a member of Voltron. So it’ll already be easy for you adjust, and if you stay here we can further research your powers and figure out if there would be any negative consequences. We’ll do that anyways, if you elect to just go on with your life the way it was before. But we can train you here, figure out a way to make it so that you can control your abilities a little more,” Allura leaned forward a little bit, her hands moving now as she spoke to Lance.

“Plus!” Coran spoke up, his voice was loud in comparison to Allura’s. “We heard that you’re quite the shooter Lance, archery right? We could use someone who’s long distance!”

Lance raised a brow, “I thought that Voltron hasn’t been anything but a safe haven for super people and a research facility since the ‘70s. Why do you need someone who can shoot? And why do you need people for a team?”

Both of them looked a little uncomfortable at the question. “Well, you’re correct that there’s what we’ve been since the fall of the Galra. But there’s still always the chance that something may happen and people will need our help,” Allura answered him. “We’re a sort of back-up plan, you can say, in case something goes really wrong. And there’s nothing wrong in training supers who could use their powers for good!”

“And there’s also nothing wrong in making sure that the skill sets those supers previously have are kept sharp,” Coran added, Allura nodded her head.

“So,” she began, “What do you say Lance?”

Lance thrummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair for a moment as he thought.

“Who would refuse becoming a member of the group that had saved the world,” Lance smiled, pressing his hand to his chest. “I knew that there was something especially cool about me.”

Allura let out a sigh.

This was going to be an especially weird thing to adjust to.  
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

Hunk had been waiting a little bit down the hall for him when he left the room. “Hunk!” Lance called out to him.

He looked up from his phone, a grin coming onto his face and his eyes shining as he tucked his phone into his pocket. “Lance!” He shouted back at him.

“Hunk!”

“Lance!”

The two of them met in the middle and Hunk grabbed him into a tight hug. Lance and him were around the same height, but Hunk still brought him onto his toes a little bit (Lance knew why that was so easy for him to do now). “I haven’t seen you in forever man,” Hunk sighed dramatically.

“I know, bro, it was tough,” Lance patted Hunk on the back. The amount of warmth that exuded from Hunk’s personality was so comforting. Right now there was just so much positive energy coming off of him, happiness, love. What a bro.

“You two were literally separated for three hours,” an unfamiliar voice made Lance pick up his head from Hunk’s shoulder. They separated so they could both look at the new comers. He stared behind his best bro and locked eyes with one of the edgiest people that Lance had ever seen. There was another person next to them.

“Keith, dude, you don’t understand. Lance is my brother,” Hunk wrapped his arm around Lance’s waist and pulled him closer.

“Shiro is my brother. I don’t understand the dramatics,” Keith sounded like he was joking. Just a little bit. Lance could feel that he was someone who was angry a lot, maybe a little bit too much. At the moment though, he just seemed to be relatively calm, a little annoyed but that seemed to be his constant state. Especially considering that he had a red aura surrounding his whole body.

“Keith,” the other guy, Shiro, looked down at Keith. Lance took in his looks for a moment. He had a shock of white hair, several scars on his face, the most noticeable across the bridge of his nose. And a mechanical arm.

“Doesn’t the poster dude for Voltron have an arm like that?” Lance whispered to Hunk, wondering if it was rude to mention it.

Somehow, Shiro heard him. “Well, the posters have the same arm since it’s the same person,” Shiro gestured to himself. “Enhanced hearing,” he answered the question before Lance could even ask it.

Lance stared at him. “You’re the Paladin!” He couldn’t help the excitement in his tone. A part of him couldn’t believe he was standing in front of the Paladin. Since there wasn’t really any major villains, he was more a poster boy. But whenever there was a villain to take down the Paladin was always there. Super strength, a robotic arm, and other abilities that made him one, if not the most, strongest hero around.

Shiro looked sheepish at the name, rubbing the back of his neck and nodding his head with a small smile on his face.

Keith had gone silent but he was staring at Lance. Lance realized that he hadn’t introduced himself and technically he knew both of their names already. “Oh, I’m Lance,” he waved at them.

“Hunk talks about you a lot,” Keith shrugged his shoulders. He looked at his brother, “Shiro, Matt’s going to add something weird to your arm again if we don’t head there now.”

“You guys heading over there? Can we tag along? Might as well introduce Lance to everyone,” Hunk smiled at them.

“I don’t see any harm in it. We can talk more on the way there too,” Shiro began to walk. He took lead in front of them quickly. Lance followed after him, feeling a little bit star struck that he was talking to the Paladin. He was a lot taller than Lance had originally thought he would be, and the posters did not do his biceps justice at all.

Hunk nudged him and Lance looked at him, glaring just a little bit. As soon as Hunk realized he didn’t need to hide his powers anymore, he also seemed to forget that Lance was not able to handle the same hits that he was and that he had super strength.

“What sort of ability do you have, Lance?” Shiro was talking to him

“I can read people's emotions? I think, still kind of figuring it out but I’m totally able to ride people's vibes,” Lance had no clue the full extent of his abilities. He did smirk casually though, speaking with ease and wiggling his hands a little bit to add some more ‘umph’ to his statement. “I can also see their auras. No biggie,” it was super annoying. No biggie though.

“Auras, huh? What color is the most common?” Shiro glanced at him.

Lance hadn’t thought about that. He didn’t really keep tally. “I guess, now that I’m thinking about it, there really isn’t one common color. All of them are pretty common since they’re mainly primary colors with a few random shades thrown in. Like sometimes Hunk here goes more orange but he’s generally a nice yellow,” he explained.

Hunk seemed a little pleased, “I’m yellow?”

“Yeah, dude. Most of the time you’re this chill, daisy yellow. It’s nice.”

Hunk was smiling a little bit brighter after that statement. Lance wondered what his own aura was, since he wasn’t able to actually see it. He doubted that he would ever be able to see it.

Eventually they reached a door and Keith placed his hand on the panel in front of it. The doors slide open and Lance couldn’t help but stare with wide eyes at the sight that was in front of him.

The room was relatively bland, in terms of the walls and the floors. But there were pieces of technology scattered throughout, two people with incredibly similar hair were looking over at a table in the room. The shorter one picked their head up, looking over their shoulder towards them. They jabbed the taller in the side and they jumped, pressing their hand into their side.

“Pidge!” The two of them looked incredibly similar, obviously related. One was older, with more masculine features. “Took you long enough, Shiro,” the taller smiled at Shiro with familiarity.

“Sorry, Matt,” Shiro had a very small smile on his face when he said this. Matt just approached him and wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck, pulling him down and pressing their lips together. Shiro’s arms wrapped around Matt’s waist. Lance looked away when he saw Shiro’s hand slip lower than Matt’s waist, instead looking over at Hunk.

“They do that a lot,” Keith informed him before Hunk could, “You might as well get used to it now.”

Pidge was frowning at Matt and Shiro. “God, you guys are gross,” they rolled their eyes before landing on Lance. “Keith’s right. They do it a lot. I’m pretty sure that Matt wouldn’t work on his arm if someone wasn’t watching them.”

Matt stuck his tongue out at Pidge when they said that. “Excuse the gremlin, I’m Matt. Lance, right?”

He nodded his head, “Yeah.” He looked over at Hunk, “You do talk about me a lot, don’t you?”

“You’re my best bro,” Hunk stated. “Also I really freaked out after you ate that soup and called everyone about it,” he sheepishly admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Matt had led Shiro over to a table where they had sat down, talking about something Lance couldn’t hear.

“He called us basically crying,” Pidge looked at Lance. “I’m Pidge. Matt and I work on all of the technology here. Matt’s a technopath. So he’s able to talk to technology and control it, it’s easier for him to control something he’s created, he can create smaller pieces of technology but can’t exactly pull a robot from thin air. It’s still an incredibly useful power, especially in modern society.”

That was incredibly useful. Lance could see why they trusted him to work on Shiro’s arm, or rather why Shiro trusted him. Aside from the copious amount of PDA that they seemed determined on showing, there had to be a really good bond there. “Are you a technopath too?”

Pidge shook their head, much to his surprise. “Despite my pale complexion and former hay fever, I control plants. Nothing super crazy, mainly I control vines and flowers,” Pidge paused, several flowers sprouted from their hair, they gently plucked one. “I can remove them from my body and use them to attack things, or stop them. I just can’t pull that many from my body at once or I’ll start bleeding. They’re basically an extension of me so I have to be careful even though they can take a whole lot. Matt got the better end of the stick, although I’m a great gardener.”

Hunk jumped in, “Pidge helps out because they're a genius.”

Pidge smirked a little bit, looking a bit proud at that. Lance noticed that they were wearing a sweater with a green cat on it with multiple yellow eyes, it looked incredibly comfortable. “It’s a Holt thing,” they shrugged their shoulders. “You should meet my dad. He’s able to build a functioning robot from a tooth pick”

“And I thought my dad being the Latino version of MacGyver was cool,” Lance mumbled. “Hunk, bud, you should give me a full tour of this place. As cool as this lab is, I’m sure there are more interesting places here,” he nudged his best friend who looked over at him from some piece of technology that he had picked up and started to look at.

“Can I join you guys? Matt’s going to be busy for awhile and I think it’s about time that I step out of this place,” Pidge waved their hand in their air.

“Wow, you’re actually leaving this room? That’s a shock,” Matt looked up from where he was working on Shiro’s arm before he went back to it.

Lance looked at Hunk who met his eyes, Hunk shrugged. “I don’t see any harm in it, you’ve seen what’s allowed to the public but since Allura and Coran have deemed you worthy,” he paused, wiggling his eyebrows, “then might as well give you the full tour,” Hunk agreed.

Hunk looked over at the pretty boy in the room, his face earnest as usual, “Are you coming with us Keith?” He asked.

Keith glanced at Shiro and Matt and then he looked over at them. “Why not?” Keith sighed, his shoulders falling a little bit. He didn’t sound or look enthusiastic about it, but Lance felt like that was just Keith’s face at that point.

Hunk smiled at this. “Great. Follow me, Lance and party,” he began to lead the three of them out of the lab. Once they were out, he turned right as opposed to going back towards the way that they had came. Lance noticed that for the most part, the building looked relatively the same everywhere they went.

Every now and then Hunk would point out some sort of secret that they would only know about, or Pidge would point out something that they apparently found interesting. Lance paid attention to everything that they said. Keith for the most part was silent, although he piped up when they passed by one of the training rooms (“That one is the best one, one of the old members of Voltron overrode the systems and no one has bothered to fix it. It can get pretty hardcore.”).

“What’s that room?” Lance asked as they passed a large doorway.

“Dunno. No one’s been in that place in forever,” Hunk shrugged his shoulders.

Pidge fixed their glasses, pushing them higher on their nose. “In the maps it just seems to be a giant conference room of sorts. The cameras don’t work there but we’re trying to get into it.”

Hunk nodded his head, “We want to see what’s inside it, we would enlist Matt to help but he might tell Shiro who’ll tell Allura…” Hunk trailed off.

“Point is, none of us know what’s in there. They’re trying to hack our way in,” Keith pointed at Hunk and Pidge.

Glancing at the door again, Lance frowned. “Huh. Okay,” he didn’t have the same skills as Pidge and Hunk. He didn’t really do any sort of hacking. “Imagine if it’s just an absurdly large storage closet of some sort. Maybe it’s where Coran keeps his hair related products,” Lance tried not to look at it again once they walked past. Man, he really wanted to know what was in there.

“He keeps that stuff in his private room, at least some of it here. It smells nice,” Keith commented. When the three of them looked at him oddly Keith shrugged, “I asked to try it once. I’m not a wild animal, I care for my hair sometimes.”

“Was this after you almost burned the edges?” Pidge asked.

“Well, yeah,” Keith admitted. Pidge snorted a little bit and Keith had an expression that Lance had seen on his nieces before.

Lance couldn’t help but wonder how he was going to fit into this. At least they weren’t going to be really doing anything superhero related, that made this ten times less nerve racking.


	2. Keith

Although more and more people were born with abilities, the trickling of heroes being produced was slow. In Keith’s opinion that was because of the restrictions that had been placed on people with abilities, and a lack of resources. You would think that after a few generations of people having abilities that there would be more support systems, but Keith guessed that it was still a small part of the population (not really, when you thought about the math but people ignored math) that most people elected to ignore it.

Voltron was too small for his comfort. He felt as if it should be a larger organization, that it should be as large as it once was. But there wasn’t really a need for superheroes — even though there were definitely small time villains running around.

Shiro usually took care of the ones that he was able to. There were a few other small time heroes, yet they came from small agencies that were barely able to hold themselves up. And there wasn’t a high demand for them like there used to be.

Keith knew that there were vigilantes running around that the police couldn’t stop even if they wanted to as well. Honestly, he might have been running around with the small groups that were collected around the country if Shiro wasn’t his brother. It wasn’t a coincidence that the two of them were brothers and they both had abilities. When Shiro’s parents had adopted him, they knew what they were in for since his abilities had begun to show when he was young.

Still didn’t mean that it stopped Keith from accidentally burning down the bed. Thankfully their parents didn’t lack resources. Voltron was something that Keith had been aware of all of his life; his and Shiro’s parents were involved, but he hadn’t become an official member of the place until he was in his late teens.

Shiro had been involved with Voltron for a while now, probably since his early twenties. Being Paladin meant that he was a poster-boy for the most part, although Shiro wasn’t really lacking in the heroics acts parts either. But it wasn’t as if there were any major villains at this point for Shiro to take down, or for anyone else in Voltron to be in the field. For a little bit, back when Keith was in his pre-teens, there had been some spark in criminal activity.

That had been stomped out rather quickly. It didn’t mean there weren’t any criminals. Just no reason for Voltron to be out running in the street in their costumes constantly. It seemed after the incident with the Galra, being a super villain wasn’t something anyone was up for. To Keith it was weirdly unsettling since he figured that there would be a larger issue, but he wasn’t going to complain about people being safe.

Despite all this Keith still felt that Voltron was too small. If they were meant to be a sort of backup in case shit hit the fan, shouldn’t they have been bigger? He knew that they had been bigger back in the day but after everything with the Galra, Voltron had basically been reduced to a napkin, a penny, and a potato chip.

Still, even if he felt that Voltron was too small, Keith was hesitant to say that adding more people was a good thing. Lance didn’t seem like a bad guy. He had given Keith no reason to believe that he wouldn’t be a good addition to the organization. But Keith was still unsure about him. While Lance hadn’t done anything wrong, he hadn’t done anything good either.

He had committed no grand act, or even a small act of good. Keith wasn’t even sure how his powers worked. Did Lance even know? His powers had just happened so abruptly. Lance probably had no idea the full extent of his abilities — no one did. Hunk had called him frantically when it had happened, and Lance had mentioned briefly what he could do. But they were still developing, Allura seemed to think so anyways when she mentioned it to Shiro (Keith was not snooping, he just happened to overhear).

Keith narrowed his eyes at him, watching the way that Lance moved around the place. His posture was relaxed enough but Keith noticed that there was some tension in his shoulders, he kept rubbing the back of his neck too. Lance didn’t look secure in the Voltron headquarters. The first day he had been there Lance noticed how closely he had stuck to Hunk, how he was basically glued over to his side. It hadn’t been very long, just a few days since then.

That didn’t mean Lance wasn’t social. Lance was loud and boisterous, something that he remembered Hunk mentioning before. Keith figured that part of how uncomfortable he was was due to the fact that he was still adjusting to this new way of life.

Keith did have to feel bad for the kid. The way that his powers had developed didn’t really seem favorable.

He didn’t really expect for Lance to show up at Voltron the next day, following after Hunk. The two of them had their bags on, and it wasn’t unusual for Hunk to come to Voltron after school but Keith didn’t know why he hadn’t expect that Lance wouldn’t.

“Keith! Buddy!” Hunk greeted him when Keith had walked into the room. He and Lance were around something, glancing at it. Hunk still had his bag on but Lance’s was beside him on the floor. It was dark blue like most of the shirts that he had seen Lance wear. Pidge was talking to him, their hands gesturing wildly. They were sitting at a table, a few tools were around them. Lance seemed a little confused by what they were saying but he was listening intensively.

“Look at what Pidge made,” he grinned at Hunk, reaching towards the items but Pidge slapped his hand away.

“Hunk,” they gave him a warning glare. “What have I said about touching my works in progress?”

Hunk gave them a sheepish smile. Keith was sure that Pidge was just being over protective over their work. Hunk was more than capable of handling the technology, but Pidge poured their little, obsessive heart into every piece that they built.

“Sorry,” Hunk laughed a little bit and rubbed the back of his neck (Keith wondered how much time he and Lance spent around each other, since he could begin to see similarities in the way that they moved). “But it’s really cool.”

Pidge gave Hunk a satisfied smile, pushing up their glasses. “It is pretty cool, isn’t it?” They looked over at Keith who furrowed his eyebrows.

“You made boots?” Keith glanced over at Pidge. He had known that they were in here working on something, he had come in there to see what it was exactly. Also, Pidge was probably hise closest friend there in Voltron if he excluded Shiro. Shiro and him were brothers, it wasn’t hard to be related to him.

Pidge waved their hand. “Well, yes. But they’re boots meant to hone your speed. Every time you run you’re relying on your fire abilities to help you go faster, meaning that you’re constantly leaving a trail of fire behind in your wake and that isn’t very good for the whole “try not to destroy everything” deal,” they picked the boots up gently. “They’re still prototypes, but they should allow you to go fast without leaving a trail behind you. Plus they should make you even faster.”

Keith stared at them. Pidge had modeled them to fit in with his field outfit — even though he never really had the chance to wear it, much to his chagrin — well, almost anyways. His outfit was mainly black but the boots were white with a dark red on them, which did match up a little bit with it. The red was around the rim of them, and when he turned them over he noticed that they were also on the soles (he wondered if they would get dirty quickly like this). There was a trim of red on the very top of the boots as well, surrounding it. There was a very thin white line on bth where red clasps met, holding the boots together. On the back of the boots, and on the sides near hsi feet as well there were very small holes where Pidge had no doubt put something in there in order for him to move quickly with his fire.

“Why white? Wouldn’t they get dirty or dinged up?”

“You need another color to wear that isn’t black or red. And if they get dirty it should be easy to clean them. I can make it red easily if you want,” Pidge answered,, shrugging their shoulders.

“I wear more than just black and red,” Keith looked at them.

“Oh, excuse Pidge, they meant, black, red, and the occasional camo,” Hunk patted Keith’s shoulder gently.

Keith rolled his eyes. “So, do you want me to test them out?” He looked over at Pidge.

“Well, obviously that would be ideal. It would give me a chance to see what kinks it has. Plus hasn’t Coran been wanting to time you at your fullest potential anyways? I’m thinking these can give you that,” Pidge stroked their chin as they thought outloud.

“Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of training thing today?” Lance spoke up, and Keith noticed that he was toying with the strings that were connected to the hood of his jacket. He was also bouncing just a little bit on his heels, Keith looked away from him.

“Not really training so much as just testing our abilities,” Keith muttered. “Allura likes to check in and make sure we’re up to par.”

“As if there’s ever a need to worry though. We do train a lot,” Hunk stated. “Especially Keith over here,” he pointed at Keith with his thumbs. “He’s constantly making one of the training rooms steam.”

Lance let out a low whistle, Keith was unsure if he was supposed to read that as Lance being impressed. “So, you’re the Zuko of this place?”

“What?”

“Y’know? He’s obsessed with honor. Has a scar on his face but still the prettiest character on the show. He’s scary. Reeaaallly grumpy, would probably listen to some emo music if he was a real person. Really hardcore firebending powers, also incredibly awkward,” Lance gestured as he spoke.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You haven’t seen Avatar!?” Lance let out a startled gasp, his eyebrows shooting into his forehead. His face full with over dramatic shock.

“No? Should I have?” Keith looked at Lance, furrowing his eyebrows. Pidge looked between them.

Lance looked shock, gasping just a little bit. “It’s one of the most legendary cartoon series of the entire course of the human existence. The sequel series is included in that statement as well,” he had placed his hand on his chest.

“Lance, I’ve tried. But Keith doesn’t really watch anything unless it has to do with conspiracy theories,” Pidge stated blandly.

“Not true,” Keith attempted to defend himself. It was true to a certain extent. Keith watched more than just conspiracy theories, they did take up most of his watch list however. “I just don’t watch cartoons. They’re not for me.”

Lance looked at Pidge, before looking at Pidge again. He thrusted his hands up in his air in a movement that made Keith sure he would have slapped himself, his face lifting towards the sky with another overdramatic sigh moving his shoulders and chest, “We have to show you that at some point. It’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen,” he stated with determination in his voice, his voice way too serious for something so little. Lance looked at him, “It’s _Avatar_.” Lance had a whine in his voice.

“We’ll get there eventually, bro. We’ll show him the light one day,” Hunk patted Lance’s shoulder gentle and nodded his head. Lance nodded as well, his expression one of solidarity. Keith didn’t think it was that big of a deal but apparently he was wrong.

Pidge was messing with the boots on the work table near them. They looked up at the three boys that were in front of them. “So, you’re willing to try these out when Allura tests us today, Zuko?” Pidge asked him. Keith didn’t really get the reference but he wasn’t going to start Lance up again about Avatar.

“Yeah. As long as they don’t blow up on me I should be fine.”

“Keith, you’re resistant to fire,” Pidge deadpanned.

“I can still be harmed from an explosion. Especially if they come from my feet.”

Pidge frowned at him a little bit. “I won’t make you explode,” they rolled their eyes a little bit. “I shouldn’t anyways,” there was something in their tone and Keith knew that they were joking. At least he knew Pidge well enough for him to have faith in them.

Keith kept thinking about the power limitation training. The boots in his hands were just reminding him of what was to come. The heaviness of their weight seemed to match up with the heaviness in his chest. The hair on the back of his neck standing on edge. There was something that kept disturbing him, like an animal preparing to run away before the storm. Something in his gut was just telling him that there was something going to happen, that things weren’t going to remain so quiet anymore. Keith had mentioned it to Shiro, having confided in him the day previous. Keith had spoke quietly, feeling worried that he sounded a bit insane when he talked about it.

There was a small silence between the two of them for a moment, and then Shiro had looked at him for a moment and then he gave Keith one of those weird brother smiles that Keith was sure part-worry and then part-trying to step into a mature role he wasn’t fully there for yet and said, “You have good instincts Keith. If you feel like you should worry, then worry. Just don’t let it consume your every thought.” Even if the words had meant to be comforting, it just made Keith feel worried that maybe he was letting it consume him.

So a lot of the time Keith just swallowed the feeling that he felt in his gut. Ignored it for him saying that he was just being overly suspicious. But it just kept growing. He was vaguely aware of the fact that he was glaring at the metal table that Pidge had rested his boots on.

“Keith,” Pidge’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah?” He looked up, startled.

“You have a weird look on your face,” Pidge eyed him warily. “You’re not thinking anything — ”

“No, I’m not thinking about anything concerning. You’re not a psychic Pidge,” Keith waved them off.

“I was going to say emo but now you have me actually concerned,” Pidge frowned. He was pretty sure they were trying to cover their tracks but Keith rolled his eyes.

“You caught me. I was thinking about everything emo.”

“I still miss My Chemical Romance.”

“You’ve moved on to screamo though. Don’t those bands fill the void in your heart?” Keith asked them and Pidge snorted a little bit.

“Nothing can fill the void that My Chemical Romance left. Nothing,” Pidge placed a hand on their chest as they looked a Keith seriously. Keith gave them a small smile. He swallowed his worry and concern. Maybe he would be able to talk to Allura later about it.  
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The thing about Allura testing their abilities as often as she could was that she always made them do it in groups. She wanted to make sure that the people she would use on the field could work together, even though she always made sure that Keith and Pidge stood a good distance apart. Fire and plant related powers tended not to mix well together, although both of them had good control there was still a risk involved for Pidge.

Allura had her hair tied up. She wasn’t wearing her super suit but she was wearing a training suit, one that was full body and zipped up to her neck. It was most likely made out of the same material of her super suit since it had the same slightly shiny texture that made Allura look like she was glowing a little bit — but she always seemed like she was glowing so it may just be her. Probably related to her abilities.

Coran never wore anything fancy. His suits were probably one of the most basic, since he didn’t really do missions anymore. Keith wished he did, considering how strong he was. At the moment the eldest in the room looked at them all next to Allura, his hands placed on his hips as he grinned at them. “Look at all of these fresh faces today!” He stated loudly, the grin never leaving his face. “Keith, I like your boots. I like a bit of splash to break up some monochrome myself,” he winked at Keith.

It reminded him of an older uncle or someone who snuck you candy.

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, his mechanical arm was a similar white to Keith’s boots. Instead of red it had white and gold mixed in there, probably being one of the prettier things he had seen Matt create that still held a function. The gold trimmings were along the joints of Shiro’s arms, light blue circuit designs running along his arm that glowered whenever Shiro used it. Despite the colors of his arm, Shiro’s own outfit was mainly black. His shirt was cut off on the side where his mechanical arm was, the other side being covered with a long sleeve. The shirt reached up on his neck. Like Keith he also wore gloves, mainly to avoid fingerprints. His pants were a light wash of black, a dark grey. He wore lightweight boots that were black. Since it was training, Shiro didn’t have his usual belt around his hips, or helmet on. He and Keith seemed to be accidentally matching most of the time in their super outfits.

Keith kept staring down at the boots on his feet. They were heavy, Keith being unused to the weight of the metal on his feet. He wondered if they would slow him down more than they would actually increase his speed.

Allura clapping her hands together made him startle a little, his head picking up to look at her. “Alright! We’ll begin with the warm up,” she told them with a wide smile. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Pidge had been showing Lance their vines with a slightly smug expression on their face. Shiro had finished stretching next to him.

“We’ll do laps with intervals in between until I say stop. The intervals include your standard stretching, core workouts, as well as some burpees and push ups. First lap includes stretching, second is core, third is burpees and fourth is push ups. You have to continue each exercise until everyone is there and done with four sets. No abilities used during the warm up, please,” Allura instructed. “Between the fourth and fifth lap you must stand and wait until the others are there before running,” Keith knew that would allow for enough time for their muscles to cool down, meaning they would have to force themselves to run.

“Sixth lap you all must sprint. Ready?” Allura looked at them all, eyes bright, “Go!”  
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

  
By the time Keith and the rest were done with the warm-ups there was sweat on the back of his neck. The cool down stretches felt nice, letting Keith relax just a bit while he watched his friends test how far they can push themselves and their powers without being too exhausted. Coran was testing Pidge at the moment.

It was entertaining to watch the way that Pidge’s vines moved against Coran’s mustache. Coran was stronger but Pidge had more in terms of numbers, able to produce more than he was since Coran was limited to the two ends of his stache (although they could split up into different halves themselves, even then it wasn’t as much as Pidge was able to do).

Eventually, Coran managed to pin Pidge down and Pidge called uncle, lifting their hands in the air. Allura was keeping time, seeing how long it had taken for Pidge to get worn out. She would never do anything to harm the vines that came out of Pidge’s body (Allura wouldn’t harm them at all, not really, she may bruise them but she knew their limits), but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to exhaust them all until they just had to lay there and wheeze.

Shiro was always intimidating to watch since he was just a beast. He wasn’t as strong or impenetrable as Hunk, but he was faster than Keith and he was probably the most well-rounded of them all. Allura always smiled whenever Shiro did anything. Keith couldn’t help but have a proud smile too whenever he watched his brother move about. When he glanced over at Lance, he noticed that he was incredibly dazed. His expression was one of someone who was clearly starstruck. Keith reminded himself that Lance wasn’t a hero like the rest of them, at least he had less time to adjust to it than they had.

And Hunk, Hunk was a hunk. Keith thought that he was probably one of the most handsome guys that he had ever met, and one of the nicest too. Plus he was able to crush things effortlessly, and lift way more than the average human should be able too. Although keith felt as if he was showing off in that moment, as he carried far more than he had ever had before and was strained just a little bit when he did so. Keith was sure he was showing off for Lance, but he felt that if he was doing it just for that then he could hurt himself. He knew that Hunk was smarter than that though.

“Alright, Keith,” Allura looked at him, her eyes bright and a small smile on her face. “Your turn. We all want to see what those boots can do.” Keith looked down at his feet when she mentioned them, turning them a little so he could stare at the chrome on his feet.

“Line up,” Allura instructed him and Keith did as he was told. He made sure that he was in a proper position, leaning down and making sure that he did as pidge told him too, essentially turning the boots “on” (it really just opened pathways for his flames to easier move through). Keith met Allura’s eyes, nodding his head, and Allura looked at him for a moment, Keith looked forward eventually. “Go,” she instructed him.

Keith was always naturally fast. Whenever he used his powers to make him faster, it usually ended poorly in some way but he did get a pretty good boost in his speed. When Keith began to run this time around, he at first began as he usually did. Just completely normal and not at all on fire.

And then he turned on the jets — literally, and allowed himself to take off. Keith wasn’t as fast as someone who had actual abilities to run at super speed but Keith was still back at the beginning of the track faster than he had ever been before. He felt that his feet hadn't’ even completely touched the floor. Keith couldn’t help but imagine that when he got better at using his fire as an engine then he would be incredibly fast.

“How fast was I?” Keith asked Allura.

“You ran 400 meters in 20 seconds,” Allura told him and Keith smirked just a little, allowing himself to calm down (if he didn’t calm down, then he would stay warm and possibly combust).

He heard a low whistle, glancing over and seeing Lance looking at him. Well, everyone was looking at him. Pidge moved quickly over to him, looking at the boots while pushing up their glasses. “They work well, I wonder if there’s any more improvements that can be done.. How did they feel on your feet?”

“They feel comfortable,” Keith admitted to them and Pidge let out a satisfied hum.

“I still want to look at them, if you’re okay with that.”

“I’m more than okay with that Pidge. Improve whatever you want to,” although Keith didn’t know what they would improve.

Allura was speaking to Lance now, Keith noticed when he looked away from Pidge who was still hovering around his legs. Lance nodded his head and listened to what she was saying. Keith watched as Lance eventually began to do basic tests for Allura to see where he was currently at.

Keith looked away and just went back to Pidge who was muttering to themselves, feeling weirdly disappointed that they would be unable to see Lance’s powers in the same way that he was able to see theirs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> power reference:  
> shiro is essentially captain america  
> keith has fire abilities, which he can translate into steam that he manipulates for extra speed  
> pidge has vine abilities that grow from them  
> matt can communicate and manipulate technology  
> coran has a majestic mustache


	3. Lance

A day after the training, which really was just hardcore working out for Lance and more of power training for the rest, he couldn’t help but feel like every muscle in his body was sore. Since Allura and Coran weren’t sure if his abilities could be used out in the field like the others, he had just been worked out to the bone. There really was no other option in testing his limitations at the moment, they just tested his physical capabilities.

It was worse than drylands for his swimming team, which was something that Lance always dreaded (and once his archery coach made him plank for almost ten minutes for losing dumb bet but that wasn’t something that was constant). To make it worse, Lance and Hunk had school the next day which meant Lance had to walk to each class in pain. And to make it that combination even worse, Hunk was fine throughout it. Meaning that Lance had to suffer by himself. On top of all of that, a lot of his classes that day were upstairs and he had to climb up and down the stairs constantly.

Lunch was, at least, on the same floor as his previous class.

“How are you not dying?” Lance threw himself onto the lunch table, a loud groan leaving his mouth. Picking up his head hurt too much. Moving his entire body hurt. He couldn’t even eat his french fries without feeling the risk of tears because he was in so much pain. His head was hurting too. Lance felt caught in a whirlwind of emotions that were coming from all around him. Hunk was comforting to be nearby, since the proximity seemed to amplify his emotions. Lance could deal with Hunk’s with no issue.

Hunk patted him on the back, “Super strength dude. I barely ever get sore.” Hunk sounded amused, but Lance was hit with a feeling of of slight exasperation (he had been complaining all day) and pride, although he could feel a bunch of amusement. An almost smug amusement. Lance turned his head to look at him, hitting Hunk with an expression of puppy dog eyes.

He stuck out his bottom lip a little bit, pinching his brows together in what he hoped was a sympathetic look. Lance hoped that his eyes were round and watery like an actual puppies. Hunk was surrounded by a halo of yellow whenever he looked at him, right now there was some orange mixed in. He was a kind person. It was in his very core.

“Hunk, buddy. Pal. Bro,” Lance pleaded a little bit, a whine in his voice when he did so. He should win an Oscar for this performance.

Hunk looked down at him, “Yes, Lance?”

“Feed me?” He asked Hunk. Lance felt another wave of exasperation, Hunk looked away from his physics homework to look at Lance.

“Only if you help me with my AP Chemistry homework,” Hunk promoted him, but handed him a fry. Lance accepted it, taking it from his finger with his mouth.

“What are you working on?” Lance asked, shifting so he was sitting up (with some minor grimacing) and then laying his head on Hunk’s shoulder. It was just the two of them at lunch that day. Some days they had a larger group, depending what lunch it was. They were lucky they had the same lunch no matter what day it was, since their school switched between a system of two days in order for them to have an even spread of classes, splitting the lunches so that the lunch rooms weren't incredibly full as well.

“Just some stuff based on Coulomb’s law,” Hunk let out a small sigh, Lance felt his shoulders move underneath his head. “I should know this but I’m so tired it’s not making any sense,” Hunk rubbed the bridge of his nose. Lance hummed a noise of understanding, he was in AP Chemistry as well but a different class than Hunk. Even if he did take chemistry already, he could definitely relate to not knowing what was going on.

Lance peaked at Hunk’s work, which was scribbled in black pen. Some of the paper was smeared from Hunk’s hand, where there was light black marks on the side. Lance looked away once Hunk handed him another fry, which he gratefully accepted. A spike of anger from the back of the lunch room had Lance turning his head to look, watching as the most well known couple in school glared at each other, having a low conversation that was probably full of anger. Lance glanced back at Hunk’s homework.

It was distracting to feel what everyone else was feeling all of the time. Lance had to wonder if there was a way to put a cap on his emotions. He turned back to the work that Hunk was pouring over. It seemed that Lance had taken too long to help him, since Hunk was muttering under his breath was he did the math himself. He had apparently caught whatever mistake it was that he had made.

Lance dropped his head back onto the table, no longer feeling hungry despite the lack of food that he had eaten. All of emotions were flooding him still and although Hunk was a comforting presence, he wasn't enough in the moment to make Lance feel that much better. Anger, sadness, joy, and a whole bunch of other emotions seemed to be rolling over him in waves.

“I should've stayed out of the soup,” Lance groaned. “Everything is too _much_ ,” he whined a little bit, looking at Hunk before nudging him. The few things that hadn’t seemed to be bothering him all that much lately where swim and archery, purely because of the determination that everyone felt. There was occasional frustration and exhaustion, but nothing that Lance was unable to deal with.

Hunk patted the top of Lance’s head. “I know dude.”

“Hunnnnnkkkkk,” Lance pawed at his side, wanting his attention. “I’m sore, and I’m tired,” he kept whining. “And I have swimming tonight,” he let out a loud groan.

Hunk made a noncommittal noise. “Wait,” he said abruptly, making Lance raise an eyebrow. “You have swim tonight?” He asked. There was something in his tone that made Lance squint.

Lance nodded his head, “Yeah. Why?”

“Lance, you’re going to die,” Hunk looked at him, pausing. “Isn’t it still drylands for you?” Lance felt that there was more behind his question. Hunk didn’t seem to want to say whatever was really on his mind. Lance didn’t want to press.

Lance tried to remember the schedule, “No. I think we’re in the water today. Thank god. But I’m definitely still going to feel this if they make us do drylands.” His arms felt like noodles, as if they weren’t already weak (for a swimmer they were strong, since archery required him to have some muscle there but they weren’t his best asset).

“I bet you wish you had super strength right now,” Hunk gave him a small, smug smile. He wiggled his eyebrows.

Lance’s response was to throw a fry at him. Hunk just laughed, the fry bouncing off of his arm and landing on the cafeteria floor. Lance picked it up, not wanting to make it more difficult for the custodians, a pained groan left his mouth. “My own best friend,” Lance sniffles, “Laughing at my pain,” he placed his hand over his chest, mimicking wiping a tear away from his face. “What has the world come to?” He lifted his face towards the ceiling as he sniffed again.

“You should really do theater, such a moving performance,” Hunk clapped his hands. “Bravo, bravo,” he praised in a mock, teary tone.

“Thank you,” Lance made for a bow, hissing lowly under his breath when he felt how strained his core muscles were. And Lance was _good_  at core. Core was his _shit_. Hunk had turned back to his work, seeming bored by it and doodling small flowers in the margins. “Man,” he placed his hand over his abdomen when he straightened out. “How do you guys do it?”

“Do what? Allura’s training?” Hunk looked away from what he was scribbling down in his notebook, looking at Lance again.

Lance nodded his head.

“Well, we _are_  used to it. And you did just basically do Shiro’s workout, to a lesser degree since your body is pretty, y’know, average in comparison to him and me. I think if you had a physical power, or a mental one that we knew of — since I'm saying bro, as a theory, if you can sense emotions there has to be more than just that, I mean it just makes sense especially since they're developing but that's just the stuff I've been talking to Pidge about — you'll be less sore. Unless you’re Keith,” Hunk stated, patting Lance on the shoulder.

Lance raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean ‘unless you're Keith’ what does he have everyone else doesn't?”

“Keith just works out constantly. I don't know if it's a fire thing or what but dude goes on for days, I mean…” Lance began to tune Hunk out without meaning too, feeling suddenly nauseous from the clattering of emotions that seemed to have hit him all at once. The bell rang, signaling that their lunch was over and Hunk scrambled to put his things away. He looked at Lance, pausing in his actions of packing his books into his bag.

“You okay, bro? You look pale,” Hunk radiated concern, washing over Lance in waves that seemed to mingle with the others. It was like too many fireworks at once in his head. So many bright colors and so many feelings, the emotions didn't have thoughts or make sounds but Lance swore he could hear them all the same.

“Just…” Lance flailed, feeling useless in his attempt to describe what he felt. He took a deep breath, “I'm fine.” He decided to go with instead. Hunk wouldn't be able to help him. It seemed that right now, even his emotions weren't comforting to Lance as they usually were.

“Are you sure? I can walk you to the nurse or something,” all Lance felt was concern, some anxiety (that he was sure was over possibly being late) but primarily concern.

“Positive. I don't have a class next period, so I'll be fine. Go to class man,” Lance shot Hunk a grin. As people left the lunchroom in hordes, the feelings became less overwhelming due to the lack of souls in the room.

Hunk looked at him, “If you're sure, dude.” He tossed Lance one last concerned look before going to his class. Lance let out a sigh, his hands slightly clammy. He wiped them on his jeans, wondering if Allura or Coran had any ideas on how to avoid the overload he had just felt. Maybe one of the Holts knew. Someone in Voltron had to know.

At least he really hoped so. Otherwise Lance was screwed over (having super powers seemed cool until you got the short end of the stick like Lance).

Lance couldn't help but groan at the burning sensation in his legs when he stood up, collecting his trash from lunch and moving slowly to throw it away. One of the custodians looked at him, looking confused at the groaning teenager that seemed to struggle with each step he took. The custodian looked as if they wanted to ask Lance something, but held back from doing so. Lance just waved his hand, giving a wide grin to the custodian before grabbing his bag and limping his way out of the lunch room.

He wondered if he could skip practice. He loved swimming but Lance couldn't really move a finger. Hunk was right, Lance might die if he were to go to practice.   
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

Lance knew that his coach was going to be mad at him for skipping practice. She wasn't the most lenient coach in the world. Yet he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it. Allura had texted him during his last period, and Lance decided that seeing whatever it was that Allura wanted was a bit more important than swimming. Well, it was really what Coran had wanted since Allura had messaged him in order to send him something from Coran.

Which probably shouldn’t be his priorities, considering how he was a senior and he was prepping for probably one of the most important swim seasons of his high school career. But, seeing what his superhero boss wanted from him was far more exciting to Lance. Plus, it was only one practice. It wasn’t as if he was going to continuously skip them.

It was weird being in Voltron basically alone. Lance had a keycard to get into the building, and no one had greeted him. He looked around. Lance had seen it before when Hunk had given him a tour (that had been joined by Pidge, Keith, and Shiro at one point). But it was different being alone, almost like being at target in the middle of the night with no one else around.

There was a sudden spike of excitement that had Lance pausing. He turned towards the source and saw Coran, grinning with his hands on his hips. “Lance!” Coran ran up to him. “Nice to see you today, come on, my boy! I’ll tell you some stories of my youth in this place,” Coran placed his arm around Lance’s shoulders, walking with him.

“Actually. As cool as your youth will no doubt be, I kinda wanna talk about my powers,” Lance couldn’t help but grin. Coran’s energy was amazing.

“We’ll get to that!” Coran patted him on the back. “Now! When I was younger, I began to develop my amazing abilities, which as you know have to do with my facial hair,” he toyed with the end of his mustache. “I had a glorious mustache since I was about ten years old. However they didn’t get even a fraction of how strong they are today until I was in my teens. This was back when super abilities were incredibly new, so my parents were incredibly confused. I was confused. As far as I know, no one has abilities quit like mine. Of course young Pidge’s is similar, but only to a certain extent.

“Alfor, Allura’s father, met me one chance night. My abilities had drawn his attention — why shouldn’t they have? They’re stunning.”

“Coran you have one of the coolest powers I’ve ever seen.”

“Why, thank you. But, yes! Alfor had seen me using my powers to simply grab an object that was far away. And it was through vigorous training and usage of my powers that Alfor had developed that allowed me to unlock my fullest potential. Which I believe is what we have to do with you,” Coran poked Lance in the chest.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Coran, as much as I enjoy getting toned,” Lance flexed his arms (his noodles arms), “I don’t think vigorous training like last time is going to work with me.”

“Well, of course not! When I meant vigorous training I don’t mean strength or endurance training. Don’t worry, you’ll still be getting plenty toned,” Coran patted Lance’s arm. “We’re going to train your mind. And your eyes of course,” a halo of bright yellow surrounded Coran, nearly as dazzling as Coran’s personality. “Tell me. What’s the biggest issue that you have right now?” Coran placed both of his hands on Lance’s shoulders. The two of them had stopped walking, and he looked at Lance seriously.

“Other people’s emotions can get me overwhelmed,” Lance admitted. “It’s not a major issue, totally something that I can handle,” he tried to brush it off.

“Even if you believe you can handle it, we can teach you to handle it better! We can’t have you getting distracted on the field by what’s going on.”

“You’re going to have me on the field?”

“Well, natural disasters always need more heroes, don’t they boy?” Coran looked at Lance. Lance felt uncertainty in Coran for a moment, a bit of anxiety. “And during things like that, it’ll be easy for you to get swept into their emotions without the proper training!” The anxiety and uncertainty was buried underneath Coran’s confidence.

“What are you thinking for this training?” Lance asked him, allowing for Coran to lead him again.

“Well, first. I believe that we should start off with some meditation. Since we don’t know the full extent of your abilities, it’s best we start off with something to get you centered. Clear your mind and allow you to focus,” Coran spoke with his hands, nearly hitting Lance as he did. “I’ll be leading you through them. Come on now,” Coran led him to a room, the doors sliding open. It was dark inside and he noticed that Coran had set lowlights for what he assumed was ambience.

“I didn’t know if smells bothered you or not, so I decided to get rid of incense,” Coran sat down on a pillow in the room. He gestured for Lance to sit down, and Lance followed instruction. He was a twitchy person, so he had no idea how meditation was going to work for him. Lance could hardly ever sit still unless he was in pain or something.

“Do you meditate a lot?” Lance asked Coran.

“I do! It helps me center myself! As I hope it’ll do the same for you, now,” Coran proclaimed loudly. “Close your eyes,” he instructed and Lance hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. Coran didn’t have the most calming voice, but Lance was surprised to hear how easily it shifted from his usual high energy into a better suited tone.

“Breathe in through your mouth, and out through your nose,” Lance did as he was told, his fingers twitched and it was hard to not move his feet o legs. Lance didn’t like having to sit still. “Try to relax, Lance,” Coran told him and Lance frowned a little but still tried to listen to Coran.

Coran continued with his instructions. Lance felt his face screw up in frustration but he took another deep breath and tried to relax.

It was going to an incredibly long session. His mind was too filled of Coran’s feelings. Coran felt calm, which made him feel calm but Lance didn’t think he was supposed to be focusing on what Coran was feeling. Meditation wasn’t really Lance’s thing.  
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

By the end of their meditation session, Lance felt his muscles in his thighs cramp up and there were beads of sweat going down the back of his neck. “We’ll do a few hours of meditation each week. I want you to do it at home as well. It’ll be more of a challenge for you there since your family will be close enough to sense but! I want you to challenge yourself. Don’t ignore people's emotions, but learn how to detect them when you want and not all the time,” Coran clapped his hands together. His mustache twitched and Lance nodded his head, stretching despite the ache in his muscles.

“Any suggestions on meditating?” Lance asked, rubbing the back of his neck in an effort to get rid of a crook there.

“Don’t overthink it,” Coran beamed brightly at him. “Now go and have fun!” Coran shooed him away.

Lance wasn’t sure what sort of fun Coran was expecting him to have, but he would take it. “See you later, Coran!” Lance just grinned large and bright at him before turning the opposite way down the hall. He supposed he could just go home and take a nap. Lance looked at the time on his phone, seeing that swim practice was already over by then and it was too late for him to go shooting.

Shooting. Hunk had shown him where the shooting range was. Lance didn’t have his bow or his arrows, but he imagined there was something there he would be able to shoot with. He tried to remember where it was. There were a lot of rooms in Voltron, most Lance didn’t know what for. He imagined that the majority hadn’t been used since the ‘90s at the most.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and he felt the hair on his arms rise as well. Lance paused, looking at the door that he had passed. He raised a brow, noting that it was a training room. Whoever was in there was intensely going at it, since Lance could feel their frustration through the door. There was focus there too, but Lance wondered what they had to be frustrated about. He couldn’t get into the room since it was locked due to it being in use.

Would it be weird to him to wait outside the room?

Lance could see distant red, if he squinted hard enough. Doing that hurt the space in between his eyes. Apparently attempting to see auras from far away wasn’t something he was able to do. Yet, anyways. Lance hoped that it was something could happen. Then again, having walls in between him and the person wasn’t something that could be easy to do either. But Lance felt that it should work like someone who could read minds -- doing it from a distance, even through walls should be something he could do. Right now, the red was blurry thing (he imagined that this was how it felt to need glasses).

The only person who was part of Volton that had a red aura was Keith.

Keith and Lance hadn’t had the chance to talk by themselves a lot. Keith was standoffish, and whenever he was around Lance, Lance just felt how wary Keith was of him. Lance pressed his lips together, moving to walk away from the training room since he didn’t want to seem creepy to Keith. The doors slid open as soon as he turned away, and Lance got the sudden feeling of startle and something akin to whenever his dog thought that she heard an intruder.

Lance turned, looking at Keith and offered him an easy going smile. “Keith! Buddy! How’s my favorite flame guy?” Lance shot two finger guns at him, the smile still on his face. There were beads of sweat that rolled down Keith’s forehead before the fizzled off into steam, Lance noticed. His cheeks were flushed and Lance thought that his hair looked nice when it was tied up.

Keith raised an eyebrow at him. His body language was closed off, but Lance didn’t need that to tell him that Keith was feeling awkward. The hair on the back of his neck wasn’t standing up anymore, Lance wanted to prod at Keith’s feelings which he knew was a rude thing to do, but Keith didn’t roll his feelings off in waves the same way others did. All Lance could feel was anger, and a general state of being uncomfortable. Not a jumble of emotions like most people (Lance was pretty sure that whatever emotions Keith had were just buried deep, _deep_  inside or something like that).

“I’m… fine,” Keith answered. “What are you doing here?”

“I was doing some training with Coran. He’s pretty chill, in an eccentric uncle way,” which was the best way in Lance’s opinion. “He talked to me about his mustache. Did you know that he’s had that since he was a little kid? Isn’t that weird, but also amusing to think about?” Lance imagined a younger Coran, but all he could think about was a smaller body with the same face.

Keith listened, he had began to walk and Lance followed after him almost instinctively. “He told me about his mustache plenty of times,” Keith looked at Lance.

“I want more mustache stories. He’s interesting to talk to.”

“He is, yeah,” Keith nodded his head and silence fell between the two of them. Lance could _feel_  Keith placing a distance between Lance and him. “Why are you following me?” Keith asked him as they got further down the hallway.

“I’m not following you,” Lance protested, although he was completely following Keith. “I was just looking for a range! For target practice.”

That seemed to pique Keith’s interest. “I guess I can lead you there. You shoot arrows, right?”

“I do, and I’m pretty amazing at it too. I’m like your every day Robin Hood,” Lance smirked a little bit, polishing his nails on his shirt as he gloated.

Keith just sort of seemed to blink at him. “I doubt you have enough skill to be Robin Hood.”

Lance felt himself bristle. “What!? Hey, I have enough skill. And I’ve split arrows before,” he reached for his pocket and drew out his phone. Lance found a picture of a time that he had split an arrow down the middle with another arrow and that he hadn’t been able to remove. “See,” Lance huffed, showing Keith the picture. He stopped walking in order to do this.

Keith looked at it for a moment, his brows furrowing. “Huh. That’s actually cool,” Keith looked away and began to walk again.

“It’s better than cool, it’s amazing,” Lance always felt proud whenever he thought about his aiming. His precision was incredibly good as well, making grouping easy for him and allowing for him to split arrows. Keith didn’t say anything else to him as the two of them walked to whatever range Keith was leading him too.

Eventually Keith stopped, opening the door. Lance looked around, amazed by how large the range was. It seemed to be for shooting arrows, but when he looked around a bit more he noticed it could be for any sort of target practice (there was a small section for where he assumed people with guns would have shot). “It’s huge,” he couldn’t help but keep looking around.

“Are most ranges not this size?” Keith asked him.

“The one I shoot at is but it’s a professional range. I was expecting something smaller for a place that doesn’t really have a whole lot of members,” Lance looked at Keith. Keith nodded his head in understanding.

“Well,” Keith removed his hair from his ponytail, running his fingers through his hair. “I guess I’ll leave you to it.”

“What, do want to stay around and see my awesome skills?” Lance grinned at him.

Keith raised his brows for a moment, “I have to go meet up with Shiro.”

“You’ll be missing out on a lot. But,” Lance took a dramatic sigh, “If you ever want to learn from a master, you know where to meet me,” Lance pointed at himself.

“I don’t feel like I can trust you with arrows around people. Or anything else you can shoot with. Try not to get lost next time,” Keith was suddenly standoffish again and Lance had thought that they were beginning to get somewhere. Lance frowned, watching him leave.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t trust you to roast s’mores!” Lance shouted at him, although Keith was already out of earshot.


	4. Keith

Keith stood by and watched as Shiro pulled pieces of his outfit on. Shiro's field outfit was essentially armor. The majority of it being white with black added in there. Keith thought that it worked with his arm nicely, not surprising considering that Matt had designed his armor and his arm. The chest piece of the armor was white, the Voltron symbol in the middle was black, and it reach towards his shoulders. Shiro wore a black bodysuit underneath that was barely seen, since the chest piece stopped at his midriff. It was made out of a comfortable material that wasn’t easy to cut through, despite it seeming thin and flimsy. The shoulder pieces were black as well, while the one arm that Shiro had was covered with white armor. His robotic arm just sort of hung out without any sort of real protection, as it was made to withstand battle.

On his left wrist there was a large circular piece of armor that held anything Shiro might need in it, his hands covered in black gloves. Shiro had a utility belt as well. The grey body suit piece was still there, revealing parts of his upper thighs on one side. He had white armor covering most of his thighs, and knee guards. Shiro had shin protectors and dark grey boots that were connected to the protectors, but still easy to remove as they clicked together at the ankle. Keith thought that it was a rather standard outfit. Then again there weren’t many supers out that Keith could compare him too. Shiro was turning his helmet over in his hands, Keith still sitting and watching him. Shiro often made comments on how much black Keith wore, but Shiro wore a lot as well.

“You take forever to get dressed,” Keith commented, ensuring that his boots (the ones Pidge had made, as if he would get away with not wearing them) were on properly. They still felt odd on his feet, a little heavy but not necessarily in a bad way. Keith had definitely worn heavier boots. It was all a matter of him getting used to them, and their material. Keith wondered exactly what they were made out of, since Pidge had managed to exceed his expectations yet again.

Shiro raised a brow, “I have a lot of pieces to put on. You can blame Matt for that.”

“At least he knows that you’re not indestructible,” Keith stood up to his full height. He liked to keep himself simple whenever it came to any of his outfits. Most of the speciality came in the outfit being fire proof. He tugged his jacket on, patting his sides to make sure that he had everything he needed. Similar to Shiro, he wore a utility belt that was black and fastened around his hips, small pouches holding any personal items he could need.

The boots Pidge made were bright in comparison to the rest of Keith's outfit. The only colors he wore included black, red, and a dark brown. He wore dark grey, almost black pants that had faint black stripes running along the sides, Keith also had a belt around his waist that held a small pouch in case of anything and a knife on the side of his thigh. His shirt was black and he wore a dark brown jacket over top that was close to a rust color. The boots were white and stood out, but they had the same shade of red as his mask and the white broke up the darker colors he had to make it soothing. Keith still was a little nervous that they looked a tad too much like gogo boots. 

Keith slipped on his mask, “I’m a little surprised that you’re letting me patrol with you.” It wasn't a super common occurrence.

  
Shiro shrugged his shoulders, placing the helmet over his head (the famous Paladin helmet). “It’s just a patrol. Besides, nothing wrong with you doing something that isn’t training for once,” Shiro pressed a button on the side of his helmet, a screen coming down and obscuring his face. “There’s not a whole lot of real trouble in the area we’re watching today, so we’ll be fine. Unless we manage to stop some small time criminal,” Shiro began to lead him out of the Voltron building. “If we do it'll be a good way to start building a relationship between you and the police force.”

Keith smiled a little bit at the thought of actually being properly trained as a hero. “Do you think we’ll catch any action tonight?”

“It’s the city. We’ll probably stop something even if we’re going into a district that's not really hot,” Shiro’s voice sounded muffled due to the mask covering his face. The sun was beginning to set and it reflected on Shiro’s helmet, making pieces of the black golden, reminding Keith of steps that he had yet to get to in terms of being a hero. In an odd, poetic sort of way. Shiro went on patrol often, considering that it was his full time job.

Most of the time they were walking along rooftops, sometimes on the street where people would pause and stare at them. Shiro would give a friendly wave before continuing along his route for that afternoon. Keith felt as if they should be allowed to patrol more often, considering how big of a city they were in. But petty crimes were taken care of by the police officers most of the time (Shiro stepped in a few times, mainly whenever he was called upon by the police). And there weren’t any villains. Still, Keith couldn’t help but feel as if they should be patrolling anyways.

Just in case something were to happen.

The two of them continued to walk around. Keith could hear the radio in Shiro’s helmet going off and he looked at Shiro, feeling a bit of excitement at the prospect of actually doing something. “What's going on?” Keith asked him, wanting to check out a scene of a crime.

“There’s a robbery down 5th Ave,” Shiro tilted his head at Keith. That wasn't very far from their current location, about four blocks, and they were both fast runners. When Keith looked close enough he could make out Shiro’s face from underneath.

“Let’s go,” Keith couldn’t help but feel eager at even the mentioning of some sort of action. The idea that he might be able to get involved was definitely exciting, Keith usually didn't get involved with these sorts of things.

Shiro looked at him for a moment, and Keith could tell that he was thinking about it. “I’ll let them know that we’re on our way then,” Shiro pressed his hand to the side of his helmet as he turned on the microphone in there. Shiro informed the police of their current location, and their estimated time of arrival. Keith and him ran towards the direction of the robbery, the run taking them about five minutes.

Once they arrived, Keith took in the situation. Shiro was talking to the police officers, nodding his head as he took in the information. When he was finished speaking to them, he made his way over to Keith. “There’s hostages inside, ten of them. They suspect three robbers, all armed and apparently making demands,” Shiro explained to him. “I want you to keep your head out of spitfire. Your job is hostage recovery. Help the hostages get outside, make sure they're safe, but don’t get into any fights _unless_  I call for you help,” Shiro instructed before leading Keith into the building. 

Keith was disappointed he wasn’t allowed to fight anyone there, but he knew better than to disobey what Shiro said. He might not be able to go onto another patrol if he ran off like he wanted too. Shiro never needed his help in a fight so Keith knew he wouldn't get a chance to fight then. He just dug his heels into the ground, biting his tongue as he stared at his older brother who was across from him, on the other side of two twin doors that led into the room where the robbers and hostages where. Shiro didn’t speak, meaning that Keith had to watch his hands intensely. When Shiro gestured, pointing two fingers at the door, Keith nodded his head and Shiro moved in. Keith spared a few glances towards his older brother, unable to watch as Shiro lunged forward and punched one of the robbers before turning to focus on the other two.

While Shiro rushed to the robbers, and Keith rushed towards the group of traumatized hostages. Keith noted that one of the robbers had attempted to stop Shiro by spewing water all over him from their fingertips; the hostages were all wet and shaking and Keith didn't doubt that they had been waterboarded by that same robber. Several of them were clinging together, most crying, all shaking but all looking relieved when they noticed the pair of heroes, a few who were close together looking up when Shiro and him rushed in from where they had pressed their head to their hands in a prayer.

He gave all of his attention to the hostages. Fighting or not, Keith had a job to do and his job was protecting the small group. Making sure that they were out of harm's way, Keith grabbed their hands and led them out of the room. Most of them stayed close to him, some of them running up ahead. None of them lingered behind, not wishing to stay close to the source of action.

When they got outside, Keith led them to where the EMTs were waiting with shock blankets and hot chocolate. The police were waiting too, no doubt going to speak to the victims. Shiro came out of the bam eventually, three criminals apprehended. Keith watched while he handed them over to police custody, and Shiro communicated with the officers.

While Keith hadn’t seen the action that he wanted, he still couldn’t help but feel a little bit thrilled nice he had done some actual hero work. But still, a major part of him wanted to actually take charge and fight. Keith had become a hero to get rid of criminals, and to do more than the police were able. It had taken his willpower not to turn around and assist Shiro. Half of the reason he had joined Voltron at an early age was so that Shiro could check on him, and make sure that Keith wasn't running around as some sort of vigilante.

However, the rush of the adrenaline that he had gotten from helping the hostages had been nice, and ensuring their safety made Keith feel satisfied. Even though it was still in his system that he wanted to fight, Keith wouldn't lie if he was asked about the pride he felt in that moment.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

Keith never slept well at night. This night was no different. It was almost worse since there was this gnawing, burning feeling inside of that there was something wrong. It was the same feeling from earlier. That there was something that was going to happen and that it was going to bad.

So, Keith spent most of that night tossing and turning. He placed one of his pillows over his head. Keith needed some sleep at least. He grabbed his phone and frowned at the time being two a.m.. Shutting his eyes, Keith attempted to force his brain to quiet down and for his body too, since he had the urge for a midnight run. Eventually there was a part of his body that took pity on him, relaxing as much as he could. It didn't take long for his brain to follow.

It didn't last very long and soon he was shooting up in bed. Preparing himself for a fight, Keith attempted to process the situation for the best outcome despite his exhaustion.

A slamming had noise woken him up, light flooding into his room. Keith scrunched up his face, sitting up as quickly as he was able to in bed. Keith buried his hand under his pillow, wrapping his fingers around his knife and beginning to pull it out before his brain processed what was going on (his instincts made him a fighter, not a runner. Keith blamed that on foster homes, Shiro blamed it on him being hyper paranoid). Whoever was stood there, not making a single move to attack him. Keith focused and realized who was standing there.

“Keith,” Shiro’s voice was rough, an inflection in it that Shiro’s voice typically didn't carry. ‘Something was wrong,’ was what the tone typically meant . He took a deep breath, staring at Shiro for a moment. Keith relaxed his hand, the knife going to his side. But his body was still defensive, his muscles tense as he was ready to sprint out of bed. Shiro was dressed as Paladin. There was dust -- no, it was ash on his shoulder, his hair was askew and dark eyebags were underneath his eyes. Something had happened. Several sirens moved closer, getting louder before eventually fading away into the distance. Keith furrowing his brow at the sound. Keith got out of bed, looking at his brother.

“What’s wrong?” Keith’s voice was thick with sleep, and he couldn’t help but feel surprised that he hadn’t noticed that Shiro had left the house. Usually he did if it was so late at night.

“Allura called. Apparently your phone is off and she was trying to contact you,” Keith blearily remembered he had forgotten to plug it in “We need to go. There was an attack and Allura has called us all so she can tell us what it is,” Shiro’s hair was sticking up more than usual, a result of his helmet. Keith could hear something banging upstairs, no doubt Matt attempting to put on clothing.

Keith stared at Shiro for a moment, and the nodded his head. “I’ll be right there. You driving?” Keith asked him. Shiro nodded, “I'll be out in a moment,” his brother rushed away as soon as Keith gave the dismissal. Keith usually didn’t get called out of bed at the middle of the night. He wasn't a hero that went out on patrol or went on his own to deal with emergencies.

Pulling on a hoodie over his head and some jeans, Keith tried to think about what information Allura could have. He pulled his hair up, grabbing his knife and leaving the room. Matt and Shiro were already out at the car, Matt talking on the phone. Keith could hear Pidge’s muffled voice on the other end as he climbed into the back seat of the car. He curled up back there, glancing at the back of Shiro’s head as he drove. The lights of the city moved across his skin, street light illuminating features in the dark. Matt’s glasses shone now and then due to a glare.

“Where was the attack?” Keith asked, looking between Shiro and Matt.

“The attack was in the Pollux district. There’s evidence that it was a terrorist attack. According to sources the perpetrators seemed to have powers,” Matt told him before he turned back around in his seat.

Keith mulled it over in his head for a few moments. “Any casualties?”

“There's some. It was a wide range attack. Everyone's down there,” Shiro sounded like he wanted to be there. Keith wanted to, and he knew that Shiro was probably urging whatever needed their attention to go away. Whatever was pulling them all away from where they needed to be made Keith wondered what exactly was so dire. Shiro was no doubt thinking the same.

He wanted to be helping. His fingers strummed against his thigh, and he jiggled his leg. Keith felt incredibly frustrated, his mouth set into a permanent scowl while his brows were furrowed angrily. What was the intel Allura had?

It angered him that he wasn’t there. Annoyed him that not even Shiro could afford to be on the scene. Keith just wanted to do _something_. He didn’t want to just stand around and feel useless while he could be helping.

The car slowed to a stop, Voltron in front of them. Keith jumped out of the car as soon as he was able to. He walked briskly with Matt and Shiro, the two speaking quietly in whispers to each other.

All of the lights were on, Keith squinting as they moved underneath the fluorescents, his eyes having to adjust to the brightness. It seemed to take twice as long to get to where they were going, and everything was ten times more aggravating. They got to Allura’s office a bit before Keith’s patience would run thin and make him sprint. The doors were open, as if someone had rushed in and forgotten or didn't care to close them.

Hunk was standing in the room, as was Pidge who leaned on him. Both of them looked annoyed, even though Pidge looked ready to fight something, a glare intense in their eyes and their jaw clenched together. Keith could see that they were grinding their teeth. Hunk’s expression leaned more towards concerned in comparison, his eyes fasten forward at the trio that stood in the middle of the room.

On Hunk’s left side, Lance was standing there looking disgruntled. His hair was sticking up and he kept looking around as if annoyed by whatever was going on. There was a small frown on his lips that read more of worry, matching the small space in between his brows. Those two showed his worry. Lance was tapping his foot, his hands in his pockets. Keith’s eyes lingered on him for a moment too long, watching as Lance yawned into his hand, his expression sleepy for a moment. Keith stood near him, Shiro and Matt going to the three up front.

Allura stood in the middle, her hair pulled up and out of her face, slight bags under her eyes. The look of belligerent on her face, her body radiating defiance. Her hands were folded behind her back, lips pressed together. Coran looked alive (Keith was unsure if there was ever a time he didn’t look awake or chipper), talking to a police officer that Keith recognized in appearance. Coran, similar to Lance, showed the worry in his face. The officer was stern, looking much more like someone who was scolding another. He was tall, looking more like military than an officer with his cropped hair and the stance he took on. His uniform was darker, seeming to be for a specialized sector. He looked to be about Coran’s age.

Keith grinded his teeth without meaning too, stopping himself when Lance met his eyes as he tapped his jaw and raised a brow. Allura finally looked at all of them from where she was watching Coran and the other man.“You’re all here, good,” she glanced over them, as if checking their physical state. The belligerence was not gone from her face. “I’m sure you’re all aware of the attack that has happened. They’re not releasing a lot of information to the public but…” Allura took a deep sigh, staring at them. “We were sent a direct message by the attackers. This is Detective Kolivan,” she gestured to the man standing next to the room. “They’ll be working with us.”

“With us?” Lance spoke up, his brows raising. They always worked with the police whenever there was a crime, a collaboration necessary. But the way that Allura had stated it, a tone saying that it was much more dire this time. It reminded Keith of when someone said “working with us” in movies or shows where they were speaking about business in an a more disgruntled tone.

“Detective,” Allura looked over at the officer, not answering Lance’s question acting like she didn't have time for it in the moment. “Would you care to show them the video?”

Kolivan nodded his head, pulling a video on a screen. “As Allura has stated, and you all know there has been an attack on the city. The information we know is limited, but this video tells us who they are. It gives on insight as to why they committed the attack. It’s a warning for something else to come. We’re attempting to figuring out where exactly it came from so we can track them down,” Kolivan stated before playing the video.

It started off with static, the person’s face wasn’t shown fully, covered by a half mask. It reminded Keith almost of the Phantom of the Opera from where it was positioned on one side of their face. The person on the screen smiled at them, it could have been charming if not for the leer in it. Their teeth seemed a little too sharp and their eyes were golden under the mask. A glow came off of them, visible even in the video. “Good evening, members of Voltron. And of course, the Altea Police Department. Well, I suppose in this case it would be the detectives mainly hearing this,” their voice was smooth, deep and masculine. “It’s shame that I am probably pulling you away from the current issue on hand. Terrible attack but that's necessary in order to let you know who we are. How else would we get your attention?

“I suppose I should have stated with whom we are. Forgive my manners,” the man spoke, moving his hands. “We are the Galra. I’m sure you know who we all are. It hasn’t been that long since you last saw us. The point of this video is to say hello. For too long people with powers haven’t been using them to their advantage. The Galra were meant to highlight those who were the strongest of us all. Created to show off the best in society, a great organization that had so much power. That power you all managed to swipe away from us. It was so rich and reached across the entire metropolis. We were strong. And we still are,” the person on the screen smile. “I do want to keep this brief, so, hello once again. I am sure we made ourselves clear. You’ll be seeing more of us soon.”

  
The video ended and Kolivan got rid of the screen, tapping on the watch on his wrist that had projected the video. He turned to everyone in the room, “We don’t know the identity of the suspect in the video. However, with your resources and ours combined we can easily figure out where the Galra are located and who exactly is a part of the Galra. They’ll no doubt continue with their attacks and will likely start conflict with you. Working together is the most efficient way to get rid of the Galra once again, and for good this time.”

Allura’s lips were pressed together, she casted a look down towards the floor before looking at Kolivan with a nod. “Voltron will gladly work with the police force. Anything to keep civilians safe,” her face was full of determination.

Keith felt himself nod in agreement automatically. He glanced over at the rest, Shiro’s brows were furrowed and Matt’s hand was on his arm. Pidge was leaning against him and looked incredibly frustrated. Hunk had a similar expression, eyes looking at Kolivan and mouth set into a firm line. And then Lance, who was looking at the ground, his arms crossed over his chest. His shoulders were sagging, his brows were furrowed. Keith stared at him for a while, probably too long. Lance met his eyes and Keith looked away.

“The police force and Votlron have always worked closely together, I’m grateful that we have you as allies,” Kolivan was speaking to Coran and Allura now.

“We should begin discussing how exactly we plan on working together. This isn't a walk in the park. The Galra are incredibly tough,” Coran began.

She looked away from the men who had began to talk, and focused her gaze on the group of four that was left. “That’s all for you lot tonight. You should go home and get some rest. We’ll update you tomorrow,” Allura gave them a tight smile. “For now, officially consider yourselves as part-time heroes. At least, most of you,” her eyes shifted over to Lance for a moment before looking at the rest, her look had been meaningful. She nodded her head and then joined the conversation happening next to her.

Keith watched as them as they spoke in low voices for a few moments before looking at the other three in the room. Hunk was yawning and Pidge looked back at him, shrugging their shoulders. Lance was still staring at the four that were talking, as if he was trying to listen in. His hands rose and he rubbed at his eyes, pressing his palm against them. Hunk turned to him, quirking an eyebrow.

“Are your powers bothering you?” Keith asked before Hunk was able to, his eyes glanced at Allura, Shiro, Matt, and Kolivan. Lance removed his hands from his face.

“Kinda,” his voice sounded rough. Keith imagined that he didn’t sound much better, being awaken from sleep and it being so early in the morning resulted in him sounding hoarse. “Your hair looks better tied up. Mullets are so ‘80s,” Lance looked him over once, changing the topic and pulling focus away from himself.

Keith wasn't sure how to react at that. He felt some anger rise up. Why was Lance focusing on something so miniscule when they should all be trying to figure out what they were talking about? The adults in the room (Keith still didn’t consider himself an adult, despite being eighteen) were speaking quietly to each other, eyes looking at the teenagers. They were discussing them.

A scoff drew his attention. “Okay, Kiefer Sutherland,” Lance rolled his eyes. The reference Keith didn’t understand drew his attention away from what he was staring at.

“Who is that?” Keith asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Oh my god do you not know _any_  vampire culture?! I would expect you to know him at least,” Lance huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Why would you expect that?” Keith thought it wasn't a common thing to be knowledgeable on.

“He was in this popular 80s vampire movie and you seem like you would be into that type of stuff,” Lance stated it as if it was obvious, Keith was able to hear the ‘duh’ in his tone.

Hunk let out a heavy sigh, a look of exhaustion on his face. Shiro and Coran were looking at them. Lance locked eyes with his best friend. The two of them shared an expression that eventually made Lance click his teeth. “I don’t understand how you’ve never seen Lost Boys. It’s right up your aesthetic alley,” he mumbled. Lance looked at him for a moment then looked away.

“Thanks,” Keith had no idea what he meant but didn't care.

“We should probably talk about the fact that the Galra are apparently a thing again,” Pidge broke up the aggression Keith felt at the moment. They pushed up their glasses.

“Or the fact that we’re not being allowed to deal with the situation going on right now,” the annoyance Keith felt about the entire situation slipped into his voice once more. Keith looked at the rest, seeing their expression of annoyance. Lance kicked his toe at the ground, watching his sneakers move against the linoleum tiles.

“They’re bound to increase or training and field action now,” Hunk commented, rubbing his chin. “I don’t know if I’m ready for actual action.” His face went pale, and he looked nervous at the thought.

“Hunk, buddy, you’re a rock. You can lift more than a bus I’m pretty sure. You’ll be fine,” Lance attempted to reassure although he didn't sound like the best encourager at the moment.

“We shouldn’t waste energy on being nervous about going into action. We need to prep ourselves for it,” Keith looked at Hunk who looked away from his gaze.

“Keith’s right. The city is in danger, probably more if I’m right in assuming the current goals the Galra have from what they used to do before,” Pidge stated. “We need to prepare, and we can’t waste our time and energy anymore.”

Lance frowned a little bit, looking at Allura and the rest. Keith did the same, watching as Shiro shifted his helmet from one arm to under the other. Keith looked back at Lance. “I’m sure most of us are going to be on the field at some point soon,” he didn’t think Lance was ready for that yet. Lance met his eyes, and Keith knew that Lance knew he was talking about him.

“Still,” Hunk looked between the two of them, an odd look on his face, “We’re eventually all going to end up in battle.”

Keith glanced down and then looked back up at the rests before glancing at the four who seemed to have finished up talking. “We’ll just have to give it our all, and make sure that the Galra stay down this time,” Keith was willing to give everything into the effort.

As if on cue, he made eye contact with Kolivan. He wasn’t sure if the man had heard him, but he held Keith’s eyes and Keith looked away first.

“It’s late,” Shiro addressed them. “You should all go home and get some more rest. We’ll contact you if there’s anything we need,” he was using a similar tone to the one he used to use with Keith. A brotherly tone that was soft.

“Shiro --” Keith began but Shiro shook his head at him.

“Go home, all of you,” he gave Keith a pointed look. “None of youmare in the condition to deal with the situation.” Keith frowned, but Shiro held him down in a stare until Keith looked away in annoyance.

All four of them just stayed there for a moment each hesitating for their own reasons, before Pidge mumbled a quiet “okay” that held a similar annoyance to Keith’s own in it, but their voice held more exhaustion than he felt and began to head towards the door. Filing in a line, one after another they all moved to the door. Keith hesitated but followed the others out.

When they left the room, Lance was the first to break the silence that had fallen on all of the teens. They walked under the bright lights again, and Keith glared at anything he could. “So, uh. Does anyone other than Hunk need a ride home?” He held up his car keys. It felt like such a mundane question. The almost causality behind it irritated a Keith but the hesitance calmed him down. It sounded like a Lance was nervous to bring up the idea.

“Yeah, that would be nice,” Keith accepted the ride after a beat of silence. He didn't feel up to walking home, knowing he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from running towards the fight.

“Pidge?” Lance looked over at the youngest of the four teens.

“I really don’t want to wake up my parents, and I don’t feel like biking home,” they shrugged, taking advantage of Lance’s water while it was still in the air.

Lance grinned, “Lucky you. I can fit a bike no problem in my car.

  
As Lance drove them all home, the car silent (his car was comfortable, from the mid ‘90s and it sounded off in the way all teenagers cars do but it was comfortable), Keith knew that there was no way he would possibly fall back asleep that night. He was sure it was true for the rest of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so my laptop is broken and i sent it for repairs. I was supposed to get it back last week but someone broke it AGAIN in transit so I won't have it for a while, this means updates are going to be delayed since I'm working with my school iPad and my phone. Thanks for your patience guys.  
> Also I made a playlist for this fic where my collabators also add some songs too so if you wanna hear that mess let me know and I'll post the spotify link.


	5. Lance

When Lance was younger, he would consume any information about the heroes that existed within his world. He watched all of the videos from heroes from when Voltron was in its prime and when Shiro came out onto the scene, he watched all of his videos too. The idea of being a superhero never left his mind. It was exciting! Lance had always wanted to do exciting things. Being able to help people was also a major plus to younger him. And of course the glory he got from it amazed Lance.

But when it came down to it, Lance was actually nervous. Thinking about being a hero in action was nerve wracking. He blamed it on his lack of skill with his abilities. Lance knew that Allura and Coran weren't going to shove him into the field unprepared, but Lance couldn't help but still feel nervous.

Heroes were needed in states of emergency. Lance got overwhelmed with the emotions of his classmates in the lunchroom. Thinking about an emergency situation made him hesitant.

Lance hadn't been born or gifted powers. He wasn't meant to become a superhero.

Yet here he was. A hero due to weird circumstances. Lance wasn't going to back down from Voltron. He had said that he would join, and he was going to remain apart of it for as long as he could. Lance was even ready to quit swimming and diving if it was necessary of him. Of course his coach wouldn't be happy with that. She was already annoyed that he wasn't putting all of his effort into recent practices. Lance only felt lucky that he didn't have practice that day, with all after school activities cancelled due to the attack the night previous.

Lance took a deep sigh, lifting a hand from the steering wheel momentarily to wipe at his eyes. The night had been one of the most exciting nights so far in his life. The attack was still being dealt with by the authorities, and Lance had no doubt that Shiro and Matt were probably out there too -- even if Matt wasn't a hero that went out into the field. Lance would think that they would want all available hands on deck.

He wondered if that meant Keith, Hunk, and Pidge as well. The three of them had been involved with this sort of stuff way longer than Lance has been. Lance didn't even know if Keith went to school. He hadn't talked much to the other teenager, but it seemed like he spent most -- if not all -- of his time over at Voltron. Lance wanted to talk to him more, wanted to talk to Pidge more too since the only person that he actually knew was Hunk. Hunk was amazing to be around, but if he was supposed to work with the other two then Lance felt that he should learn something about them.

Other than their emotions of course. Lance got to experience their feelings first hand. He wanted to know the reasons behind them. The night had been an exception, since it was easy to assume the cause of the emotions that seemed to radiate off of everyone. Afterwards, all three of them climbed into Lance’s car. Pidge curled up on one side of the car, leaning against their door and doing something on their phone. The screen had illuminated their face, their hair shining blue in some areas and their glasses reflecting whatever was on their screen. There had been a frown on Pidge’s face, and dark purple bruises underneath their eyes from the lack of sleep.

On the other side, behind Lance, was Keith. He had drawn his hood up and Lance hadn’t seen his hands but he was sure they were balled up in his pocket. And in the passenger seat was Hunk, who had been nervous. It made Lance's skin itchy as he sat next to him in the car, it made Lance want to fidget and hide but at the same time face the predator that was scaring him away. A fight or flight sort of dynamic. But Hunk had also been confident, and despite the anxiety that had been radiating off of him he also seemed to feel prepared.

When Lance had glanced over at him, he had caught the look on Hunk's face that he made during tests he was nervous about. The face that was full of determination to get the results he wanted and make everyone happy, even though the thought of the journey made his palms sweat. When Hunk had left the car, it had been a relief on Lance's nerves but he missed the bravery he had felt coming off of his friend. For a moment he just stood outside of the car with Hunk, ignoring the cold, night, autumn air.

“You going to be okay?” Lance had asked him.

Hunk looked up at the stars and Lance did the same, his eyes instantly landing on the Big Dipper. “Yeah, I should be,” Lance looked back at Hunk once he got a response. Their eyes met and Hunk gave him a weary smile. “Are you going to be okay? I know this is a lot for you. Especially because you haven’t really started anything yet,” Hunk brows were furrowed and Lance could feel his concern.

Lance reached for his friends hand and gave it a small squeeze before letting go. He and Hunk had never denied themselves physical contact when they both found it necessary and when they were both up for it. “I’ll be fine dude, just get some rest. I know that you have a test tomorrow,” Lance had attempted to reassure him.

The two of them shared a moment of silence before Hunk nodded his head. “Text me if anything. Have a good night, man.”

“Goodnight,” Lance waved him goodbye before he climbed into the front of his car. Pidge had replaced Hunk in the passenger seat. Keith had stretched out his legs in the back seat.

Pidge had felt close to Hunk, although Lance also felt more overwhelmed vibes coming off of them. Pidge had been less nervous than Hunk and more determined to charge forward. But it was clear that they didn't really know what to do with themselves. A steady feeling of action and the willingness to fight, yes. But Pidge had felt like whenever Lance lost his car keys early in the morning; he can't be loud or search madly for them as much as he’d try when he rushed around since he needed to get the school within fifteen minutes and everything seemed to stack up against him --

It was overwhelming.

But not the worst of the three. Pidge had lingered a little longer than Hunk in Lance's system. Probably because he had already begun to feel overwhelmed, he had just naturally adopted the feelings into his own system. Also since he had dropped them off second to last. Pidge had climbed out of the car and grabbed their bike from Lance’s trunk.

“You need a better toolbox, your stuff is everywhere,” Pidge had remarked as they screwed back on their wheel.

“The noise of the metal sliding around keeps me awake in the morning,” he replied, feeling a little more bitter than usual. Lance wasn’t sure if it was the others feelings, or if it was his own exhaustion.

Pidge had hummed, standing up straight and adjusting their bike. The street that Pidge lived on was completely dark. Apparently no one was a fan of house lights there. “Makes sense. I wouldn’t trust a sleepy you behind the wheel,” she stated dryly, with a small smirk on their face.

Lance had flicked her forehead. “Go home and go to bed. Don’t you have to go back to the eighth grade or something, twerp?”

“Twerp? What are you, from an old school cartoon?” Pidge had rolled her eyes good naturedly and Lance felt a little better with their amusement (it still felt like TV static in his chest, messy and fuzzy with things he didn’t want). “Goodnight Lance, thanks for driving me.”

“Goodnight, Pidge,” Lance bid them before going back towards his car. Keith had crawled into the front seat and had curled up there, his feet against the seat. Lance didn’t bother scolding him. Keith stretched out before Lance started driving, and the feeling of static was very much prevalent when the two of them were alone.

A reason for him feeling overwhelmed was Keith. Keith was full of red hot anger. Anger like someone had insulted Lance's family, or said something racist, or just did something that made him ready to fight them. Keith made him want to punch things, tear something apart (nothing that was alive, but Lance had to clench the steering wheel white-knuckled to fight such an unrelenting need). Being angry was the worst way to drive. It didn't help that Keith also had a lot of worry too, concern pulsing through his veins like Lance was on the field in that moment.

Being in such a close proximity of Keith made Lance want to scream, but he took a deep breath and attempted to calm down. If this had been anyone else Lance would have asked him to calm down outloud, but Lance didn't know Keith that well and he didn't want to anger him further. So instead Lance glared at the road and gripped onto the steering wheel like it was his lifeline, like it was the only thing that stopped him from pulling over and getting into a fist fight.

Lance didn't feel mad at Keith. He didn't want to fight Keith. He wanted to fight the world. Lance was willing to punch anything but he didn't want to harm anyone but the Galra and those who neglected to prevent this from happening in the first place.

When Lance had arrived at Keith's house he wanted to get out of the car and just run. Work off the anger somehow. Keith hadn't seem to realize that they were at his place, so Lance cleared his throat and turned to him. "We're here, dude," he said with a tight grin.

Keith looked mildly surprised, and the anger took a step back, albeit it was still very present. "Thanks," he murmured and nodded his head at Lance, unbuckling his seatbelt and going to get out of the car.

Lance shrugged his shoulders casually, "It's no biggie. Your place isn't that far from mine so I don't mind at all.” He spoke with the causality of discussing the weather. Not as if there had been a thousand infernos burning his chest, now dimming but still alight.

Keith had gotten out of the car and he stared at Lance. "Thanks again. Drive safe," he said. Lance shot him another grin. This one was less tight, and more genuine. Keith gave him a very small smile back.

"I will, have a good rest of your early morning, Keith," Lance sent him off with that and Keith closed the car door. Lance paused for a moment, staying in front of Keith's place as he attempted to get his bearings. There was still anger in his chest. He had pressed his forehead against the steering wheel, willing himself to calm down just a bit more before he went out onto the road by himself. Lance was sure that the only thing that had been saving him from mindless road rage was that he had been carrying someone else in the car with him.

A combination of all three people's feelings had mixed itself up inside of Lance like a terrible cocktail that he couldn't stop drinking. While most of the emotions left with them, residual feelings lingered. He lifted his head, feeling like Keith knew that he had just been sitting out of his place and was wondering when he would leave. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and just trying to clear his mind. He thought of Corans' exercises, and finally began to drive away.

His mind hadn't fully cleared by the time that he had gotten home, but it had been enough that he was able to get there safely. Lance counted that as win.

He remembered pulling off his shoes and then just laying on his bed, but not when he fell asleep. When his alarm woke him later on that morning, he was already dressed for school. Usually, Lance would never go to school in clothing he had slept in. But exhausted times called for exhausted measures. Lance still put some time into his appearance, covering his wrinkly shirt with a swim and dive sweatshirt and calling it good enough.

It had taken his all to not fall asleep during class. There had been a test in his AP Literature class, and it hadn't helped that none of Lance's classmates felt ready for it. For the most part anyways. At the end of the day, Lance felt ready to drop.

He was so drained. It wasn't the first time that Lance had been out that late on a school night but he hadn't been able to experience emotions before and he definitely did not feel things that were so raw and intense. Lance had felt skittish the entire meeting and it didn't get better in the car. Lance guessed the night before left him not just physically exhausted, but mentally, too.

Driving home was nice though. Lance put on his chill vibes playlist and focused on driving the entire way home. Which was sort of like meditation, wasn't it? Coran would be proud to know that Lance had actually been meditating. Lance was a restless person and it was hard to not feel the emotions of his family throughout his house, but Lance had been doing it. And it actually did help him focus when it came to feelings.

It wasn't perfect, since Lance wasn't great at dealing with his powers, but he didn't get headaches as frequently in the lunchroom.

Lance had been a little surprised by how short his drive home had felt. When he pulled up to his house he turned off his car and just sat there. It was warm from driving, and Lance heat on so he didn't worry too much about the late fall weather seeping in. Lance just sat there and enjoyed being by himself. He was a social personal inherently but people exhausted him a lot quicker lately. Lance wanted to get back to where he could spend hours around his friends without worrying about being too tired. Lance had always picked up on others emotions but Lance had been good at dealing with that stuff. Great, even.

_drifting seasons keep me clear_  
_the words you said have brought me here_  
_and today I find myself light enough again_  
_with the sun that's shining through it all feels new_

The song was soft int he background and calming. He glanced towards his house, seeing his dog pressing her nose against the window and wiggling excitedly. Lance smiled and he began to rush out of his car so that he could give his dog some well deserved scratches and kisses. And hug her since she was the softest thing known to mankind. His phone began to vibrate just as soon as he got out of his car. Feeling better by just sitting alone and thinking about his dog, Lance looked at the caller ID, thinking it would just be Hunk. Seeing that it was Voltron instead caused his stomach to twist in knots. Lance picked it up, bringing it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Lance." Allura’s voice echoed from his phone’s speaker. "Please come down to Voltron as soon as you're able. Due to the recent events, we're going to have to increase your training to speed things up," Allura stated simply. "Be here before ten till three."

Lance felt that he had to say something. "I will," he stated, voice quiet.

"Good. Oh! And dress comfortably," Allura hung up before he could respond again. Lance looked at his phone. It took him about ten minutes to get to Voltron and it was twenty till. He looked down at his outfit. He should be fine. Joggers and a sweatshirt were incredibly comfortable and Adidas weren’t bad shoes to run in either.

Lance released a resigned sigh, feeling overworked already. All he wanted to do was take a bubble bath and relax. He got into his car, ignoring the sad look his dog was no doubt giving him (she was barking at him and he felt guilty), and drove over to Voltron.

The drive was shorter than usual due to the lack of traffic nearing that side of town. Most people heading north when coming home, not south where Voltron was. He parked and noted the red bike that was out front, wondering who it belonged to.

Lance entered the building, finding his way to where the training room was. He was on time but it took him a little while to figure out where to go, since he was still getting used to the building. The night previous it would have taken him forever to get to the office if Lance hadn’t had Hunk with him, especially with his sleepiness. To make it worse there were several training rooms within Voltron. Lance had only really been in one -- not including the time he went down to the range -- so he went there. It was empty, but as soon as he arrived he had gotten message from Allura to go to some other room.

Eventually Lance found his way there, grateful that Voltron had numbered the rooms in the building.

When Lance stepped inside he was a little surprised to see Pidge there. The emotions of Allura, Coran, and Pidge all hit him at once. “Hey guys,” he greeted the three of them. They were all tired, all angry in some variant, and all ready to get a push on something. Impatient and near overflowing. Coran definitely was the lighter of the three of them, his attitude perking up a bit when Lance entered.

“Ah! Number three!” Coran greeted him, smiling.

Lance smiled back, “Number three?”

“I ranked all of the heroes by height and you’re the third tallest. Congrats on beating Matt and Keith. There really wasn’t any competition from Pidge,” Coran went over to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

Pidge rolled their eyes, sighing before they spoke, “Wow, I’ve never heard a short joke before. In my life.” Their voice was deadpan.

Lance could feel his worry, the enthusiasm Coran felt not very deep. Coran was attempting to make them feel better; actually, he might have just been trying to make Allura feel better. Allura wasn’t much older than Lance. Lance could barely imagine how it must feel to be in her position.

Allura gave him a polite smile. “Thank you arriving so quickly Lance,” she ignored Coran’s antics, although Lance could feel a hint of amusement from her.

“It's no biggie,” Lance shrugged his shoulders, placing his hands in his pockets as he gave Allura an easy-going smile. “So… what exactly are we doing? Pidge and I don't really have similar abilities and all.”

“You're not doing anything with your abilities. You're sparring. Like I stated on the phone we’re speeding up your training. Even if we’re not quite sure of the full extent of your abilities, we can at least prepare you physically. You haven't sparred yet so think of this as both a test and a lesson,” Allura smiled back at Lance as she spoke.

“So let's get started! And reminder, Lance, try not to let Pidge’s feelings affect your own or distract you. Keeping focus in the midst of battle is especially important for you,” Coran did a double finger gun at him.

“Will do,” Lance promised doing two finger guns back.

He had a vague idea how to fight. Lance had once taken some martial art classes. Still most of his fighting experience came from wrestling with his older siblings when he was younger. Sometimes Lance was the winner with these, and other times he ended up being sat on by one of them, and a few times he’d ended up in tears.

Lance was sure there was some technique that he was going to be taught while sparring with Pidge though.

Allura and Coran backed up. Pidge stepped up to a large mat and Lance followed. He looked down at it and couldn't help but feel excited when he saw a timer appear, as well as scores on either side of the mat. There was a large zero both underneath Lance and Pidge.

“You’ll be doing three rounds. Underneath you should keep track of who won that round. If you’re pinned down or down for a long amount of time, the mat will mark which person who wasn’t pinned. The timer is just to see how long it takes between each round for someone to win or lose. In case it glitches, we’ll be watching as well,” Allura explained to the two of them, folding her hands in front of her.

“Are you two ready?” Coran asked them loudly, looking excited to see the two of them fight. Pidge slid their foot back, getting their balance and stance together. Lance mimicked them the best he was able too. PIdge was calm. Confident. They were small but Lance knew that they didn’t perceive him as much of a threat. Nothing about them was giving him that signal.

“Begin!” Coran exclaimed and Lance wasn’t sure if he should make the first move or not. Pidge was watching him, probably observing him from the way that they were staring him down. Lance balled up his fists and made up in his mind to attack, but Pidge was rushing at him. Her body was low and her arms were soon wrapped around Lance’s legs, Pidge skidding on her knee as if she were some sort of wrestler. Lance dropped down to the ground and his back ached as soon as he made impact.

Not wanting to lose so quickly, Lance began to get up. Pidge landed a blow near his side that made his features screw up into a grimace. They climbed on top of him and pressed their entire body weight against his body. Lance flailed, grabbing them at the waist and trying to lift her off but Pidge had pinned his legs down, making it difficult for him to support himself and ultimately ruining his attempt to pick her up.

There was a small ding underneath them and Lance threw his head back in a groan. “Round one to Pidge!” Coran announced as Pidge climbed off of Lance. He got up, feeling a bit discouraged by how easily he was taken down. Lance thought that he would have put up more of a fight.

“How did you take me down so fast?” Lance asked.

Pidge took off her glasses, cleaning them with her shirt. “I just saw where you were weakest in your stance,” she told him and Lance frowned as they both got back into their places.

“How can you tell?”

“I don’t really know. I guess it’s just something that I trained myself to do,” Pidge shrugged her shoulders. Lance frowned a little at the lack of explanation but prepared to continue with the sparring match.

The next two rounds went about the same. Pidge would find some sort of weakness of his and use it against Lance. She would then fail to teach Lance what exactly was going on, and he was just left clueless on the mat. Each time Lance asked, he could feel a small spike of annoyance come off her. Apparently trying to explain was frustrating her as much as not having an explanation was frustrating Lance. Allura and Coran had glanced each other before looking at him and whispering.

Lance stood up with the help of Pidge after the final match, who gave him a small smile and pushed up her glasses. “Sorry, I’m not super good at explaining the whole fighting stuff.”

“You’re fine,” Lance waved them off.

Allura and Coran dismissed the two of them, and Lance was just glad that Pidge had just pinned him down a lot rather than leaving him covered in bruises.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

The next time Allura and Coran wanted him to spar with someone, he was up against Hunk. Lance was admittedly nervous since Hunk was a beast of a person. The other had super strength and Lance had no idea what to expect from his best friend. Lance didn’t want Hunk to go easy on him, not wanting to be stalled further in the process of learning, but Lance also didn’t want to explain the bruises that were bound to arise from the sparring match to anyone.

This time Lance was a little more prepared. He had no idea what Pidge did but he could at least attempt something similar. Lance was smart enough to figure it out. He knew that people had weak points on their knees, and that if you tickled Hunk he would instantly die of laughter and end up on the ground. Tickling was a last resort, since Lance doubted he would be able to tickle the Galra.

Standing on the mat this time Lance felt an equal amount of prepared and unprepared. He had never actually seen Hunk fight. Hunk was a lover more than a fighter. But it didn’t mean that Hunk couldn’t fight and that Hunk wouldn’t fight him.

Lance took a deep breath, giving his best friend a flash of a grin, “Don’t go easy on me now, big guy.”

Hunk quirked a brow, “You sure about that buddy?”

“Well, you’re supposed to prepare me,” Lance shrugged his shoulders.

Hunk frowned a little bit nodded his head. “Okay. If you’re really sure about that decision. But you have to promise to tell me if you want out,” Hunk pointed his finger at Lance as he spoke, reminding him of a serious teacher. Or Lance’s mother when she scolded him.

“I promise dude,” Lance stuck up both of his hands as if he was surrendering. Hunk observed him for a moment before nodding his head.

Allura and Coran had been silent throughout the exchange, just watching the two of them talk back and forth. When both of them had gone silent and looked towards them expectantly, Allura cleared her throat. Lance focused on Hunk in front of him, giving him one more smile before schooling his features into something more serious. “Go,” Allura’s voice didn’t carry the slight worry she seemed to feel.

Lance was down so quickly and so fast he didn’t even have the time to blink.

Hunk had barreled him over and Lance once again found himself on his back in the worst way. He let out a wheeze of the breath, Hunk having managed to knock the wind out of him. Hunk had just pushed him over with his shoulder. Lance felt that he hadn’t even given him all of the pressure he could of.

“Lance are you okay?” Hunk asked him, kneeling over him. Allura and Coran had run up, kneeling over Lance too for a moment before Coran gently pushed Hunk and Allura out of the way. Coran gently pushed his knees up towards Lance’s abdomen, which helped him a little bit. There was still a bunch of pain from being hit so hard. His back was stinging, and so was the area of impact from Hunk.

“Take some deep breaths, Lance. In through your nose, out through your mouth,” Coran instructed him. “You just knocked the wind out of him pretty hard. No need to worry too much, Hunk. Nothing a few moments can’t handle,” Coran reassured Hunk as Lance took deep breaths. Lance could feel the guilt coming off of Hunk in waves. Eventually Lance was able to breathe normally again and Coran let helped him sit up slowly, Lance took another deep breath that he exhaled slowly.

“Are you okay?” Hunk asked him, worry filling Lance.

“I’m fine. It’s not the first time that’s happened,” Lance attempted to calm his friend down. “Remember that one time I smacked the water really hard? Or when that girl accidentally kneed me during rehearsal for the musical last year.”

There was a deep frown still set into Hunk’s features. “Are you sure you’re okay? Not just attempting to reassure me?”

“Perfectly okay. We can definitely go again,” Lance clapped his hands on Hunk’s shoulders.

“Nope. Nu-uh. No way. I am not risking you getting hurt again and it being worse next time,” Hunk shook his head.

Lance let out a small whine, “C’mon Hunk. It wasn’t that bad.”

Allura pressed her lips together, “Hunk is right,” she stated, looking between them. Her brows were pinched and Lance could also feel concern from her. “Even if it was just the wind being knocked out of you, he’s too strong for you at this point. You have little experience with fighting so Hunk could easily hurt you again. That isn’t to say that you two shouldn’t practice fighting together. Just maybe not sparing, a more teacher-student situation may be better,” Allura piped in. Lance frowned a little.

“Alright. Fine. Hunk, bud, mind showing me some moves?” Lance asked. Hunk and Allura’s shoulders visibly relaxed, while Coran just sighed.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

“Shiro and you might match up well, and he could easily help you improve your actual fighting skills,” Coran suggested to him one day after the two of them had finished a meditation session (this time Coran had blasted loud music throughout it in an effort to distract him).

“Nope,” Lance shook his head immediately. Shiro was his hero. His role model.

“Lance it might be --”

“Not doing it.”

Coran let out a sigh of what sounded like resignation. Lance was surprised he had been convinced so quickly. He didn’t care to find out why though.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

The third attempt to find someone who could both spar with and teach Lance brought in Keith. Lance wasn’t surprised at all to see him in the sparring room when he walked him. It was going to happen eventually. Keith wasn’t as angry this time, not leaving any foul taste in Lance’s mouth. There was agitation there but Lance felt as if Keith was always agitated in some shape or form. He looked at Lance as soon as he came in, giving him a once over.

“Hey Keith,” Lance greeted him.

“Hey,” Keith raised his hand in response as a greeting. His arms were crossed over his chest. “I’m guessing you haven’t warmed up yet?”

“Um, no? Was I supposed to?”

“It’s better if you do, otherwise you’ll feel like crap just like any other exercise. I’ll go through some with you,” Keith offered him. That was already way different from Lance’s first two attempts at this sparring thing, so he felt a little bit lighter about this prospect.

Keith’s warm up wasn’t super intense, although Lance felt as if he was toning it down for him. Most of it included stretching and shadow boxing. Keith had to grab his arm and adjust him several times. Keith also had the tendency of kicking his feet in order to correct his stance. He didn’t mind since what they had done still got Lance sweating and his heart pumping. Lance realized that this was more than they had ever touched before.

The spar itself was difficult. Keith was fast, and Lance stumbled whenever he aimed an attack towards him. It was a sort of small miracle that Lance had managed to stay on his feet for so long. Keith aimed a strike at his face and Lance reflexively moved back, looking behind himself as he realized that Keith was backing him up. Lance looked around, trying to find a spot to run to. His eyes landed on Keith’s side which was unguarded.

Lance rushed towards it but Keith stuck out his leg, tripping him almost effortlessly. Lance landed on the floor and Keith placed his foot on his back gently, not applying too much pressure. Lance stayed down, frowning into the mat. The ding letting him know that Keith had won the round made him sigh and Keith let up, letting Lance climb onto his knees before he stood up. At least he had beaten his time with how long he had stayed up.

“You held up pretty well, but you're not really aware of your surroundings. You're too focused on running away and not fighting back. It was easy for me to back you into a corner,” Keith explained to him. “You defend yourself well but again, all you're doing is running, which should be a last resort. You should prepare to strike back when you get the chance, and try faking me out next time instead of making it very obvious which way you're going to run.”

Actually receiving constructive criticism on the spar was nice. It was a different pace and a nice addition Lance hadn't had before.

“Right, okay,” Lance nodded his head. “How did you know I was going to go that way?”

“You were staring at my side for a while, you gave yourself away,” Keith shrugged, taking a sip of water.

Lance nodded his head. It was like when he received comments from his coach. Just something for him to improve on. “Cool, cool. I'm ready to go again,” Lance grinned at Keith who gave him a very small smile in return.

“Try to actually hit me this time,” Keith teased and Lance scoffed.

“Don't challenge me,” Lance gave him another grin before the sparring match actually began. This time Lance tried to make sure he wasn't being backed into a corner. It was hard to block Keith’s attacks without running away. Keith was swift in his movements, almost ruthless.

Lance barely caught the punch that was aimed towards his abdomen. Not wanting to get winded again, Lance attempted to copy a movement that Keith had done earlier. Using his arms he used his elbows, leaning towards the side Keith was coming from to deflect the punch with his arms. Keith hit harder than Lance was expecting. Moving away from Keith, Lance attempted to swipe at his feet but Keith easily stepped out of the way.

The two of them dance. Lance following Keith’s steps clumsily, trying not to step on his own toes as they went back and forth. Keith was easily beating Lance. He was better. But he wasn't just overpowering Lance. Keith was going easy on him, Lance could tell from how relaxed Keith felt. He was focused, but he didn't seem to be putting all of his energy into this sparring match. Each one Keith seemed to work a bit harder from what Lance could tell, as if he was letting Lance adapt to his speed.

It was weirdly nice. At the end, Lance was panting. He could feel some sweat down his back. “You kept up pretty well,” Keith told him. “We should do this again. If we keep up with constant sparring you should be caught up,” Allura and Coran were letting the two of them talk this out considering that there was positive if Keith and Lance matched up well.

“What days?” Lance asked him.

“When are you free? Preferably training would be most of the week but you go to school,” Keith tilted his head.

“I have swim most days after school but if you don't do late night sessions then after 5:30, I'm free,” Lance rubbed the back of his neck. Swim was usually two hours, maybe more, and then Lance wanted to give himself time to do some homework. “You don't go to school?”

“I graduated a year early,” Keith shrugged. “You might need to quit swim, you know that right?”

Lance frowned, “Hopefully not.” He was hoping for a swim scholarship for college.

Keith crossed his arms, “This is a job that needs your full attention. It won't be good for any of us if you're exhausted during training or even missions.”

“I think I can find a balance,” Lance managed to balance theater, archery, and swim so he didn't see why this should be different. The statement annoyed Keith and he frowned.

“After swim practice. Monday through Thursday, does that interfere with your meditation and power training?”

“No,” his power training was Friday through Sunday. “That works fine.”

“Good,” Keith nodded his head. “You're not actually bad, just sloppy and lacking technique.”

“Well, I have you here for that now,” Lance said, teasing in his tone.

Keith raised an eyebrow. “I guess so. I'm going to do some stuff on my own, you should hit the showers.”

Lance felt a little disappointed by the dismissal but he felt exhausted. He headed to the showers, feeling ready to go home by the time he was done. Lance hoped that he would be able to manage his time well enough to keep with his swimming. But when he thought of the Galra, and the fear everyone else felt (even his parents were afraid of what might happen) Lance doubted he would be able to do anything but work.

A part of him felt ready for it, even though he was exhausted already and was still heavily unprepared. The other didn't think so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna know what Lance was listening to, he was listening to The Dove & the Wolf! I saw them live and shook one of their hands, super nice people and great band, the song specifically is "The Words You Said"  
> Also the chapters keep getting longer this one was like 6,300 something I think??? 
> 
> Comments bring me validation (and discussion, i love talking lmao)
> 
> Hit me up for stuff @  
> trans-riot.tumblr.com  
> electricpurity on instagram


	6. Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean to go so long without posting -- the holidays started, then school again, and I deal with a lot of personal issues like bad depression and anxiety so I just didn't have the energy to post. But I should start posting more regularly (not regularly, since I'm shit at schedules). Thanks for being patient lmao

Keith sat in his bed, hunched over with the curtains drawn to avoid any flare of his screen. His laptop sat in front of him, balanced on his knees. It had been about an hour since he had crossed his legs. He could feel them stiffening up and he shifted his weight but otherwise didn't stop what he was doing. His eyes tracked the words in front of him carefully, Keith wasn't going to miss any information if he could help it.

Following the recent rise of the Galra, Keith felt like he had cabin fever. He was trapped with nothing to do but to dig and wait. Waiting included researching, scrolling through old news articles. All he did was read, and read, and read, occasionally watching videos. He couldn't go out and do anything about the situation. There wasn't enough information, Allura had told him, for Keith to run out on his own. He could hear her now, “It'll be too dangerous. Voltron isn't prepared for an offensive move yet, you're not either.”

Keith thought that they were wasting time. Pushing the training with Lance was a good thing since it meant they were finally to starting to move, and Keith felt relieved that he was the one doing the training. That meant he could speed up the process even more if possible.

But training one kid from off of the street, who didn't even seem to have the time for being a proper super (you had to make sacrifices, and Keith felt that Lance wasn't willing to do that), didn't mean that things were going to speed up. Keith thought they were lagging. The Galra were fast, they were sharp and dangerous. Their numbers had been large when they had first been taken down. Or they thought that they had been taken down.

The more Keith researched the more he realized that there had always been the chance of this. It made sense of course. They were huge in the 70s. The Galra wanted had claimed they weren't villains, to them Keith was sure they weren't. Maybe to some, they were, not bothering to lie to themselves. The Galra had started off with a small group who didn't want to be controlled or limited by the government. Trackage of those with abilities had been proposed then, and there was a controversy of people with powers. Outcasts in society until Voltron rose up and began to change things.

The Galra had disagreed with the way Voltron handled things. They wanted a revolution. The issue was is that they took things too far. In theory, their points were great but they quickly turned into extremists who did nothing but terrorize.

Keith chewed on his hoodie string as he glared at his computer screen. The news clip was from the ‘70s, the time and age noticeable in the quality of it. The news reporter pushed up his glasses, looking up from the papers in his hand. He was a balding, heavy-set man who had a face that reminded Keith oddly of his former high school principal.

“Breaking news coming from Downtown Altea near Calum and 4th, where it seems that a group of Gifted,” Keith thought it was ironic that the original term for people with powers was Gifted considering how society treated them at the time, “have started several building fires. They seem to be terrorizing the street, using their abilities dangerously and recklessly. The police are attempting to dissolve the situation while firefighters are struggling against the group to put the fire out.”  
  
The man on screen shifted his sheets, looking down for a moment before looking back up at the camera. A glare of light was reflecting off of the man's glasses in the clip, “Reporter Bob Hoganson is currently down at the scene, Bob,” the reporter nodded his head to the cameraman, or whoever was supposed to take the cue.

There was a moment of blurriness before the camera came up, focusing on a man who was wearing an orange ascot. “Bob Hoganson here reporting live from Calum and 4th where a group of Gifted has begun to terrorize the streets,” someone was yelling in the background and behind Bob flames covered a building, something in Keith’s gut twisted at how destructive his own ability could be.

“This isn't the first time that this group has attempted to attack like this,” another yell, this time it sounded like a firefighter who seemed to be telling about water pressure, “however it is-- Hold on folks,” Bob squinted in confusion at the person on the other end of the earpiece. “Apparently there are several attacks happening all throughout Altea,” Bob’s face had grown worried and he stared at the camera, hands gripping the microphone tightly. “Attacks have appeared near --"

“Oh, shit!” was the only warning the stunned man behind the camera yelled before the person in the background became noticeable.

This person was dressed in all purple and was hurtling something at them that was flowing. It seemed to have come from their hand. It landed a couple of inches behind Bob who had begun to scramble. There was only a second pause before the speakers of the mics has blown out and the screen turned to static.

“Bob? Bob?” The first reporter came back on, looking ashen now. He paused seeming to process the situation fully. Then his camera face was back on, his expressions schooled into something more serious and professional.“Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that we can not get in contact with our fellow reporter. As the situation progress, we’ll keep you updated on the latest. Stay indoors. Stay safe. We don't know what they're planning,” the reporter warned before the video ended almost abruptly.

Keith ran his hand through his hair, pushing his bangs back and away from his eyes. The first ever recorded. Anger that started as a burning in his throat made him scowl. They were doing nothing, nothing direct to stop them.

They were discussing ways but it was taking too long. Keith knew that the Galra would grow like a weed and that they would spread as quickly as a wildfire if they weren't stopped soon. They needed to look harder. There wasn't any doubt in his mind that there were people who aligned themselves with the Galra among everyone that moment. Keith clicked on an open document on his laptop, typing in information quickly. He typed in more questions, adding to the already almost overwhelming amount of questions he had.

Keith jumped when he heard steps coming near his door. He took out his earbud and placed it on his bed, staring at the door. The person on the other side rapped their knuckles against it, “Keith? I brought you food.”

“Where from?” Keith replied, and Shiro took that as an invitation to pop his head in. Keith smelled burgers and fries and realized how hungry he was. He looked confused at the darkness but not surprised. Shiro flipped the light on and Keith blinked to adjust to seeing his whole room again.

“Sals’,” Shiro lifted the bag and Keith crawled over his laptop to grab it.

“What'd you get me?” Keith asked even though he could smell the food already. He sat up on his knees on his bed to explore its contents.

“The usual. Because you're boring and picky,” Shiro crossed the room and flopped in the chair Keith had. He ignored the clothes on it.

“I'm not picky, I just have my favorites.”

“You don't eat fish unless it's sushi or made by Matt, you don't eat tomato, bacon, avocado, red bell peppers, most things that are green actually, blueberries citrus, you don't drink milk --"

“I'm lactose intolerant,” Keith defended. He looked up from where he was already shoving as many fries as he could into his mouth. Sals’ always had the right amount of crunchiness and saltiness to their fries.

“You and I both know that you have lactaid pills,” Shiro stared him down and Keith rolled his eyes. “Anyways, you also don't --"

Keith cut him off again by throwing a French fry at him. It hit Shiro’s check, leaving salt and grease in its wake. Shiro picked it up, holding it between two of his mechanical fingers.

“I don't know if it's dangerous for me to eat this or not. When was the last time you cleaned this chair?” Shiro asked Keith, staring at the fry for a moment longer. “I know this is your dirty laundry chair, Keith.”

“I'm a clean person,” Keith muttered through a mouthful of food.

“Don't talk with food in your mouth that's gross,” Shiro threw the fry at him. Keith narrowly avoided it. He didn't bother with verbal retaliation. Instead, Keith flipped Shiro off with one of his hands.

Shiro stuck his tongue out, easily sinking back into the annoying older brother to the annoying younger brother. Keith focused back on the food, happily biting into his burger. It was pure deliciousness of meat, cheese, ketchup, and nothing else.

“What were you doing before I came in here?” Shiro asked him, shifting in the chair so he could rest his arm on one of the cushions, his hand cradling his head. “Did I interrupt some conspiracy theory?”

Keith took a moment to swallow his food, not wanting to choke. “I was doing research about the Galra,” no point in lying.

Shiro’s brows furrowed. “Keith…” he sounded tired.

“Shiro, there's so much more that we can be doing right now to stop them,” Keith began. “Galra could be anywhere. They spread quickly, you know this and I don't doubt that some people stuck to the Galra ideology. We need to find them.”

Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose, “I know, Keith. I know. But we have to think about this first. There might be a lot of Galra out there, you're right. Right now we don't have a lot of foot soldiers, and no lead about anything having to do with them. We can't just rush into things.”

“We can't let them attack again!” frustration crept into Keith’s voice.

“We’re limited on men--"

“You have the whole squad of police behind you right now. There's also the team,” Keith pointed out.

Shiro thought for a moment. “Keith, you're the most advanced person on the team aside from Matt and me when it comes to being on the field -- the lack of experience of everyone else doesn't help.”

“This can be experience for us.”

“And it will. Just once we actually have more details,” Shiro assured him. Keith scowled as he crumbled a wrapper in between his hands. He placed into the bag that the food had come in.

“Is there something that you needed?” Keith asked Shiro.

Shiro raised a brow, crossing his arms over his chest and lounging back in the chair. “What? I can't just bring you food?”

“You _can_ ,” Shiro did it often, stating that Keith never ate enough. “But you brought my favorite thing from Sal’s and you haven't scolded me about taking proper care of myself.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Maybe I just wanted to do something nice.”

“Doubtful.”

Shiro glared at him, the two of them locking eyes and staring each other down. Keith raised an eyebrow at him, silently challenging him. Eventually, Shiro broke eye contact. He let out a sigh, slumping in his chair and closing his eyes. He looked exhausted and a bit older in that moment. How he used to when they were younger.

“Everything always has an ulterior motive with you. I partly wanted to feed you, and I also wanted to just see how you were. We haven’t really talked lately,” Shiro explained.

“We live together, Shiro,” Keith deadpanned.

“That doesn’t mean we talk,” Shiro frowned at him. Keith let out a loud sigh.

“What do you want to talk about?” He decided to just have a conversation.

Shiro made himself more comfortable on Keith’s chair. His arm seemed to be messing with him since Shiro kept stretching it out. Eventually, he just reached over and decided to take it off. Keith didn’t blink at this since he was used to seeing Shiro without his arm on. Once Shiro was comfortable and settled in, he actually began to speak.

“You’re training Lance now. How’s that going for you guys?”

Keith ran a hand through his hair. “He doesn’t know how to fight. I mean, he seemed to pick up some stuff from when Pidge and Hunk tried to see if they were a good match. But there’s no technical skill.”

“Allura did say you went easy on him during your first round.”

Keith shrugged, “I just wanted to see where he was so I didn’t find the point in making it too difficult. I don’t think he’ll ever be a close combat person, but I can easily get him to where we need him to be. The quicker the better.”

“I’m glad that you’re training him. You’re one of our best fighters. You’re probably better than me,” Shiro gave him a fond smile. “I don’t know about Coran though.”

“Coran could easily beat all of us in a fight if he really wanted to,” Keith ran a hand through his hair. Coran was an odd guy. He was hyperactive and was sort of a goofy person in what he talked about and how he carried himself, but he was incredibly dangerous if you actually knew anything about him. Shiro nodded his head in agreement.

“Still,” Shiro got the conversation back on the original topic. “I’m proud of you for branching out there. It’s not like you to agree with helping someone you don’t know.”

“It’s necessary for this situation,” Keith raised an eyebrow. He didn’t think that he should be commended for something he was probably going to be forced to do anyway.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders, “Well, thanks for not putting up that much of a fight about it.”

Keith would take that, “You’re welcome.” There was a lull in the conversation.

“I still don’t understand why he refused to go against me,” Shiro sighed as if disappointed.

“He’ll have to do it eventually. I never saw an issue in fighting you.”

“I know you _didn't_  Keith, I have pictures to prove it.” While the age gap between Shiro and Keith was only about seven years, it didn't mean that as soon as Keith was able too the two weren't wrestling. Keith had bitten Shiro more times than he was able to count, and Shiro had definitely given Keith black eyes by accident in the past. “You were the worst,” Shiro said, pretending that most of the tussles weren't partially his fault as well.

Keith raised his eyebrow at him, “Oh, I was the worst? You cheated at every board game.”

“I didn't cheat, Keith. I was the banker. I was supposed to be holding the money,” exasperation filled Shiro’s voice.

“You definitely cheated while being the banker. I stand by that,” Keith wasn't going to ever give up on the argument. Neither was Shiro.

Silence filled the room for a moment and Keith glanced back over at his laptop. He wanted to do more research but he knew that Shiro wouldn't want him to, seeming to think that Keith was obsessing over it. “Do you remember anything about the Galra when we were younger?” Keith asked.

Shiro didn't seem surprised by the question but he did sit upright, thinking for a moment. “Well,” he began, “Only false alarms people would put out. Things in history class. Maybe a few idiots who tried to say they stood with the Galra just because they thought it would make them seem different. But nothing substantial, most of those people gave up after they realized what a bad idea that was. Nothing to raise a red flag.”

“Same here granted I didn't really notice anyone when I went to school but in terms of the news and stuff. There wasn't anything major until now,” which made Keith wonder why now. Why did the Galra attack? Why announce their sudden revival to the world then and there? Why attempt even coming back at all? Keith ran his fingers through his hair, frowning at the thought.

“I'm sure there's something that can clue us in,” Shiro attempted to assure, seeming to know why Keith was asking, “And I'm sure that Allura, Coran, and the detectives are already trying to figure it out. Matt and Pidge too, probably. Don't stress yourself about it. We need you to focus on making sure you're in shape.”

Shiro stood up, attaching his arm again. Whatever pain he had seemed to have faded. “Are you training today?”

Keith nodded, “Yeah,” he glanced over at the time on his screen, “I'm meeting up with Lance in a couple of hours.”

“Do you think it'll exhaust you?” Shiro asked, moving his arm around and stretching it.

Keith shook his head, “It won't. We’re starting off with simple techniques. He barely has the foundations down, all he knows right now is to mimic but he doesn't understand why he’s mimicking the moves.”

“Good, we’re starting to patrol more so we can go out on a patrol together tonight,” Shiro informed him.

“What time and area?” Keith was always eager to go on a patrol.

“Around 2200 most likely,” Shiro answered, rubbing the back of his neck. “We’re picking up on patrol especially around the area of attack in case they try to strike twice or someone tries to take advantage. The station should be out on the streets more so expect more cops than usual.”

“Is anyone else patrolling at the same time?”

“I think Hunk and Coran are going out at the same time, I'm not sure what area they'll be in though,” Shiro admitted. Keith felt relieved that Hunk was going to be out there too. Hunk was already able to hold a bus above his head, and Keith knew his powers were still developing so there was no telling how strong he would be one day. And Hunk had never used his powers during a crisis since he had first discovered them, so they also didn't know what adrenaline would do to his strength.

That only left one of the original three her agers. “Any idea if Pidge is going to start patrolling soon?”

“Most likely, I don't think they'll start with Matt though. I'll probably go with them once you're good enough on your own,” Shiro scratched his chin, thinking about it then and there.

“Matt’s not going to patrol?” Keith questioned.

“You know how he feels about field work. He’s good at it but Matt’s only going to go if he’s needed,” Shiro frowned a bit at the thought, rubbing his prosthetic arm.

“Right, of course,” Keith accepted his answer without much fight, knowing better than to press further.

Shiro nodded his head, “Alright well. I'll see you later tonight. We’ll meet up at the Hub,” the Hub was a group of business buildings.

“2200,” Keith stated.

“2200,” Shiro repeated with another nod, confirming the time although Keith wasn't really asking. Shiro left his room and Keith waited for a few moments, listening to where his footsteps went before grabbing the trash from the food and leaving to throw it out.

He returned to his bed, staring at the documents he had opened on the Galra (including his own) before closing his laptop. He had two hours until he needed to meet up with Lance, Keith intended on not aggravating himself before they trained.  
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

Lance was punctual, much to Keith’s relief and pleasure. His hair was damp but he was quick to change. When he was in something more suitable Keith had worked the two of them into basic warm-ups, not wanting Lance to strain himself. They needed to be quick but Keith wasn't an idiot and understood that all bodies had limits. He also knew that in an actual fight your opponent wasn't going to wait for you to finish stretching before you actually fight. But for right now stretching was a part of the process.

“I just came from practice, I don't think I really need to do this,” Lance pouted, his brows furrowing as Keith made him do ankle bounces.

“You're going to be working different muscles,” Keith’s voice left no room for argument.

“But I'm already stretched and limber. See?” Lance did not care much for his tone, instead just stopping what Keith told him to do in order to go down into splits. Keith was not going to admit that he couldn't do that.

Keith rolled his eyes, “Get into some high knees. Are you properly hydrated?”

“Of course I'm properly hydrated. Dude, ask Hunk. I drink so much water,” Lance boasted, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“Good, we don't need you to cramp up in the middle of a sparring match,” it was easier to ignore Lance’s dumb facial expressions than to comment on them. “Go into high knees, then we’ll start,” Keith instructed him. Lance didn't argue with him or make a comment, instead just doing as he was told. He was eager to get the warning up over with so it didn't surprise Keith that he did it without question.

When Lance was done the two of them stepped onto the mat. “I have training with Coran after this. Do you think I can get away with sleeping during it?” Lance asked.

“Isn't that training necessary for your abilities?”

“Yeah,” Lance shrugged.

“Then you shouldn't take it so lightly,” Keith narrowed his eyes at him, but otherwise felt that he didn't look as annoyed as he felt about that statement. Lance held his hands up in surrender.

“Chill, Flame-O, I was just trying to make conversation. Maybe you should try meditation sometime. You're annoyed constantly,” Lance suggested, flapping his hands around as if that somehow flowed with his words.

“It's sort of a fire thing,” Keith grumbled. He knew he had a short temper. It was something he was working on, considering that otherwise, he might intentionally not be able to hold his flames back when needed.

“I'm going to show you a solid stance. You need to be able to stay on your feet first before you plan on doing anything,” Keith stood in front of Lance. “Place your foot back, your dominant ahead. Don't lock up your body ever, make sure you're able to move around, that you're loose but tense at the same time,” Keith attempted to explain to Lance as he stood into the position he described. He stood on one foot on the ball, and on the other, he made sure his weight was more center.

“Your fire affects your personality?” Lance asked, furrowing his brows as he attempted to copy Keith.

“It's closer to my personality affecting the fire I guess,” Keith watched him. He gently kicked Lance’s foot back, “It makes me more irritable and that's about it. But even then it might just be me being irritable and my fire being naturally affected by it.”

Lance fixed his stance and Keith shoved him. Lance stumbled back, his arms waving in the air as he tried to catch his balance. His eyebrows shot up in surprise and his mouth formed a very small ‘o’. “Hey!”

“You're not on guard and you didn't brace yourself,” Keith told him casually. “Set back,” he instructed and Lance frowned before getting back into position.

“It makes sense if it was connected to your flames. Since every time I feel your irritation I feel itchy and like there's something burning under my skin,” Lance muttered.

“You can feel my abilities?” Keith raised his eyebrow in surprise.

“No. Not really. Just that your anger feels hotter than most, that's all,” Lance shook his head. Keith pressed his mouth into a thin line, that made a lot more sense than Lance suddenly developing the ability to detect powers too. “I mean even your aura is all red hot. You're like a walking spicy cheeto.”

Keith blinked at him. That was a first. “Right,” Keith mumbled. Lance was looking at him expectantly.

Keith shifted himself, raising his arms while ensuring that he was in a stable position. “When block you want to use your forearms. They're going to be bruised but they hurt a lot less than your hands,” Keith told him. “You'll want to raise your arms like a boxer would either cover your face and your stomach. Blocking gets more advanced once you learn how to block actual punches, but the simplest defense you'll want is to protect your face and stomach since punches to your face can stun you, and hits towards your stomach will leave you winded. Which I'm sure you already know.”

Lance nodded his head, listening now and not making a comment on it. “You'll want to keep your arms tight, with simple blocks you can move and twist your body to prevent hits towards your stomach and face. Right now I'm just teaching you the basic steps, which we’ll build off of.”

“Are you going to teach me how to punch next?” Lance asked, breaking his seriousness for a moment to punch at the air.

“Yes. Be sure if you punch someone like that you can break your wrist,” Keith grabbed Lance’s hand. “Your wrist needs to be tighter, and your thumb needs to be wrapped around your second and third knuckles,” he corrected the position. “Your wrist needs to keep straight.”

Lance seemed to be considering what he said, and Keith watched him clench and unclench his fist to make sure it was tight enough. “Do you always wear those gloves? Some sort of fashion statement asking to bring the 2000s My Chemical Romance era of fashion back?”

“Do you always find it necessary to comment?”

Lance’s lips twitched into a small frown, but it was gone pretty fast. “Yeah, actually,” Lance gave Keith an annoying smirk that had him rolling his eyes.

Keith just continued to tell Lance the basics of fighting. He made sure his stance was correct, that he actually knew how to not break his wrist when he hit someone, and that he would be able to stay mobile in a fight without leaving his guard down. Usually, it would be a slower process with more dedication to making sure everything was right before they tried sparring again. But Keith didn't think that they could afford that luxury.

“Do you think that you can handle going against me in another match?” Keith asked him, not attempting to be cocky.

Lance scoffed, “I can handle it.”

“I won't go as easy as I did the first time,” Keith told him.

“I said I could handle it,” Lance frowned a little bit and Keith shrugged his shoulders. He just stepped into the proper position on the mat. It took Lance a moment but he did the same thing. Keith allowed for Lance to take a moment and breathe before the spar started.

Keith came to him fast. Lance’s first reaction had been to backup, which gave Keith an opening to strike a blow towards his face. Lance seemed to recognize where he was aiming though, or maybe his instincts were just fast enough for him to realize what was going to happen. He blocked his face using his left arm. Keith aimed a blow at Lance’s side that had him stumbling away again, covering the place with the hit with his hand (Keith hadn't hit him very hard, the point of this wasn't to break Lance).

The two of them continued with the match for a while. Lance seemed to be adapting, learning what not to do. But it was still too easy for Keith to overpower him. Granted it was only their first lesson, but it still made Keith frown at how easy Lance could be taken down.

By the end Lance was panting, his chest moving up and down rapidly as he attempted to catch his breath. He set his hands on the top of his head. Keith watched him for a moment, taking a few sips of his water. He handed Lance’s his but he shook his head, refusing quietly. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Keith was the first to break the silence, “Have you ever been in an actual fight before?”

Lance sat on the floor, stretching his legs out in front of him and placed his hands back. He seemed fine now when it came to his breathing, having caught his breath and recovered quickly. “Unless you count older siblings messing with me not really. I mean I got pushed around when I was younger a few times but nothing that ever required me to actually fight,” Lance answered. He looked at Keith, “Have you ever fought an actual criminal?”

Keith scratched the back of his neck, sitting down next to Lance on the floor. “No, I haven't. Shiro usually handles any confrontation we might have when I patrol with him, he and Coran are really the only ones to go out into the field.”

Lance tilted his head at him. “Sounds sort of boring for you.”

He shrugged his shoulders but didn't actually respond to the question. “Have you ever gotten into a fight with someone at all?” Lance asked him next.

“A few times,” Keith confessed. None of them had been big deals to him, although each one had made a guardian in his life sigh deeply.

Lance grinned at him, “You seem the type to get into fights.”

“What does that mean?” Keith furrowed his brows at Lance.

“You just seem rough around the edges, that's all,” Lance explained casually. “Spiky. Irritable.”

Keith rolled his eyes, standing up on the mat and stretching. Lance watched him, staying on the floor. “You seem the type who does all of the irritating,” Keith remarked, stretching so that he could feel it in his back. Lance scrambled up so he was standing, brushing his hands off on the front of his sweatpants.

“Some people say that's part of my charm,” Lance pouted.

“Who says that?” Keith raised an eyebrow, and Lance looked at him. His expression shifted as if he seemed to realize something.

“You're teasing me!” he sounded delightfully surprised. Keith shrugged his shoulders. Lance looked a little amused now, a spark in his eyes and a smile beginning to curl at the edges of his mouth.

“You know, you should hang out with Hunk and me sometime,” Lance told him as both of them headed to change out of their training clothes.

“I've hung out with Hunk before, and Pidge.”

“Pidge too, but I'm saying we should all hang out together.”

“Why?” Keith asked Lance.

Lance looked at him, “Well, we’re going to be working together and you're training me so we should at least get to know each other in less sweaty surroundings.” Lance gestured to the training room that was behind them at this point.

Keith didn't really hang out with people often. He hung out with Pidge but their brothers were dating and Pidge was the closest Keith had to a best friend. Hunk was rare, even though Keith enjoyed it since it was Hunk. Hanging out had just never been his thing. Lance seemed like the type of person to drag you to a party to hang out since he was loud, and he seemed to be a people person which made Keith hesitant to agree. It wouldn't hurt to actually hang out with people but he just wasn't sure what to expect from Lance yet.

“I'll think about it,” he said. That was enough for Lance who gave him a wide grin.

“Cool, cool, cool,” Lance nodded his head. “Can I have your number or something like that? We should have probably traded information earlier since training and other superhero stuff.” Lance reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone which screen he wiped against his thigh. He opened his contacts and looked at Keith expectantly.

Keith paused for a moment before giving Lance his number. He knew that it was necessary anyway. Once that was done with Lance pocketed his phone again and Keith did the same.

“Are you going home after you change?” Keith asked Lance, wondering if Coran had planned any sort of training for him for his abilities after this one.

Lance shook his head. “No. I might go and practice my archery a bit though,” he answered.

Keith vaguely remembered something about Lance doing archery before. He wondered if his abilities affected Lance with sports too. Lance had said that Keith seemed irritable, and he wondered if he really was always angry like Lance said earlier. Even without himself noticing.

“Don't pull a muscle.”

Lance scoffed, “I've been doing archery since I was 12. I doubt I would pull a muscle.” He waved off Keith’s concerns before heading into another spot in the locker room.

Keith ran a hand through his hair sighing as he pulled it up to let his neck get some air. His patrol wasn't until later that night and training Lance was done for the day. He had time to kill. Keith vaguely wondered if he could actually see how good Lance’s skills in archery were.


	7. Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is currently unbeta'd

When Lance agreed to join Voltron he knew that he would be exhausted. Everything that Lance did before gaining his abilities already made him tired. It only made sense that the feeling of exhaustion would soon become very prominent in his life. But Lance didn’t think that he had ever felt such _pure exhaustion_ before in his life.

Combining school, swimming, archery which he didn’t even do competitively anymore (thankfully, he felt he might die if he did), and the efforts from Keith and Coran both in attempts to catch him up in his fighting skills and his abilities made him beyond normal tired. It wasn’t even as bad as tech week tired from when he did theater, which Lance didn’t even think he would have time for by the time the school musical rolled around.

That night, Lance got home late after his training session with Keith. When he entered his house he just leaned against the door, tilting his head back and wondering how heroes in the comics and shows managed to even exist as people. His limbs had felt heavy and he was more than ready to take a shower. He walked down the steps to his basement/bedroom and huddled himself into the shower without any other thoughts. His dog had begun to follow him but quit when he got to the stairs, too scared to go down and instead just heading towards his older sister’s room (his sister was really the dog’s person but had so much love to give). His cat, Lazuli, followed him though.

Lazuli sat by the edge of the bathtub while he showered, batting at the water and attempting to get into the shower itself several times. Thankfully she didn’t get in since Lance didn’t want to deal with a wet fur ball trying to curl up next to him in bed. Also, his room got cold at night since even if they did live in a relatively warm area it was still fall, and he didn’t want to make Lazuli shiver.

As soon as he was cleaned in his pajamas, he scooped Lazuli into his arms (to which she happily purred, rubbing her face against his and trying to nip his chin) and hurried over to his bed where he would be able to curl up and be warm. Lazuli was more than happy to curl up on the bed next to him as he worked on some minor homework, too lazy and comfortable to sit at the desk in his room, not that he thought he could work at his desk anyways since it was covered in stuff.

Eventually, when it was reaching the a.m section of time, Lance curled up on his side in bed. Lazuli climbed on top of him, making herself comfortable on his hip. He could feel her kneading the blankets on top of him but didn’t bother to stop her. She was just getting comfortable with him.

The pillow underneath his head was incredibly soft, and it felt like Lance was sinking into the bed beneath him. It didn’t take very long for sleep to come. The exhaustion that he felt mentally and physically was incredible. Lance was out like a light not long after he closed his eyes.  
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

Lance woke up to his phone ringing. His alarm clock was loud, getting louder every time he didn’t answer it. He had managed to get onto his stomach during the night. His bed sheets were tangled around his feet, his hand hanging off his bed and there was definitely drool dried to his face. Lazuli had found her way to his back and meowed in discontent when he wiggled around to turn off his alarm clock.

Lance groaned, glancing at his phone before dropping his head against his pillow. He wondered if he could sneak in a few more minutes of sleep. Lazuli was already getting comfortable on top of him again…

His moment of sleep was broken by several texts. His phone buzzed multiple times. Enough for Lance to actually sit up and turn on the lights in his room. He glanced at his phone for a moment, seeing that it was Hunk who always got up a bit earlier than Lance. And was incredibly fond of sending Lance pictures of whatever he thought was interesting, or early morning thoughts on random topics.

That morning seemed to be about a space shuttle. Lance went through his morning routine, replying to Hunk’s texts whenever he was able to. Hunk was a texter that sent several things at once and Lance couldn’t reply to everything. But each thing he replied to Lance made sure that it had copious amounts of enthusiasm.

His morning routine was typical, and he got to his school. Whenever his text buzzes were on Lance wasn’t able to focus on the lesson so it was silent throughout the school day. He was thankful his teachers let him listen to music to focus (as long as he had one earbud out) or do small things to alleviate him getting so easily distracted by most things. Lance knew that when he got distracted he got loud and sometimes derailed others, so by his senior year all of his teachers and him had figured out how to make things work -- teachers seemed to password around about students pretty quick even though their school was pretty large.

The school day was normal. Lance was lost during his AP Calculus class and wondered why he thought taking that class was a good idea when the teacher was a terrible teacher (great guy, shitty lecturer). Lance always had it planned that Hunk was going to help him figure out what they were doing during AP Calc during lunch anyway since they had that class together and Hunk was better at math than Lance was.

Again, he had no idea why he took AP Calc. Or how he managed to get into his physics class.

The bell rang and Lance was quick to pack up, waiting for Hunk to join him. The two of them were usually the last to leave the classroom which meant that hallway wasn’t super busy until they got towards the cafeteria.

“I have _no_ clue what Mr. P was talking about. At all,” Lance told Hunk, tilting his head back and letting out a long sigh. “I’m so tireddddd,” he whined, leaning on his friend as they walked. It was a bit awkward but Hunk didn’t push him off. Lance was grateful for this. Hunk’s natural comforting feeling about him was amplified with touch, it felt like some of that golden aura surrounded Lance himself for a moment.

“How late did you get home last night?”

“Like… eight? Not super late but late enough where I stayed up to do homework,” Lance knew that he went to bed earlier than some but this schedule was constant and the amount he did meant he wasn’t getting enough rest.

“Dude,” Hunk gave him a sympathetic pat on the back. Lance stopped leaning on him. “Do you think you can take a day off? Like a mental health day and just not go to school or practice?” Hunk raised an eyebrow at him.

Lance sighed, tilting his head to the side as he screwed his features, “I wish,” he told Hunk as they easily got through a cluster of freshmen to their usual spot in the lunchroom. Sometimes they went out for lunch but who had money to go out every day? Hunk, probably, since Voltron paid them but Lance had to save his gas money until he got an actual paycheck, thank you.

“I don’t think I can afford the time to catch up on the classes I missed if I decide to take a day off of school,” he waved one of his hands, sitting across from Hunk.

“That’s true, the workload this year is killing me,” Hunk nodded in agreement.

“Guys, I think Ms. Luxia has it out for me,” Lance’s friend-from-swim-turned-lunch-table-friend Plaxum sat down next to Hunk. She rested her head on her hand. “Are you guys talking about the lies about senior year being easy?” She was radiating frustration.

Hunk and Lance both nodded.

“Why do you think Luxia has it out for you?” Lance asked Plaxum. The two of them had dated for a bit at the beginning of sophomore year after they went to homecoming together. They had dived together during freshman year and hit it off. They were good as friends, but their relationship had only lasted two months before ending. They both tried to make it work but there wasn’t really much there past the surface stuff.

Plaxum began to explain but Blumpfump (an unfortunate nickname that the poor guy never was able to get rid off) sat down next to him. “Luxia has a plan to fail everyone in our class, it’s not just you Plaxum. I’m telling you there’s no reason for her to still be teaching,” Blumfump told her.

She sighed, others joining their table steadily in small groupings. “She was great during freshman year! I don’t know what I did to her, or what our class did to her to make her hate us so much. All I want to do is pass AP Lit but she’s making it so hard for us, if we don’t agree with her she marks us down. If we interpret anything differently she’s out for our heads.” The frustration that Lance felt from her was now visible and was audible in her voice. Around her usual light blue aura had some added angry reds to it.

Blumpfump nodded, full of sympathy with some added frustration, “She also yelled at me for drawing during class.

“You mean your stick figures?” Lance teased and Blumpflump pushed him jokingly.

“Works of art,” he stated, before dramatically taking a sip of his water. Which he ended up choking on. Lance patted him on the back as he coughed.

“Man I’m so glad I don’t have her,” Hunk sighed, full of relief.

“Oh, who do you have?” Plaxum looked at Hunk now. The lunchroom was the stew of the typical high school emotions. Lance had gotten better at blocking away others feelings, not letting them distract him from what was going on.

“Trayling,” Hunk answered.

“I have Trayling too. He’s such a hardass,” Lance sighed. “Not the worst teacher though.”

“His assignments are kind of fun,” Hunk shrugged.

Blumpfump waved his hand, “Let’s face it. Both of them suck.”

“You know who’s a really good teacher?” Nyma spoke up from where she sat on the opposite end of the teacher. “Remdax.”

“Isn’t he super intense?” Lance asked, both of his eyebrows raising in question.

Nyma nodded, “He’s _super_  intense but he’s actually fun when you’ve been in the class for a little bit.”

“What does he teach again?” Hunk asked.

“Generally science, I have him for environmental, though. Shay is his student aide in that class,” Nyma smiled at Hunk, who turned the lightest shade of pink at just the mention of Shay. Lance smiled too at the sudden bashfulness that his friend felt. It was sweet actually to feel how happy and flustered Hunk got whenever they mentioned Shay. It also felt creepy to Lance that he was able to spy on his friends' emotions like that like he was peering into a part of their lives that he shouldn’t be able too.

For a moment Lance checked his phone, looking through the messages he might have missed with it being on silent. He needed to try and zone out of his surroundings, feeling all of the feelings catching up in his throat even if he wasn’t really _feeling_  them since they didn’t belong to him. The general mood of that day seemed to be excited and energetic, however.

“Hey, where's Ezor?” Hunk asked, making Lance look up from his phone and look around.

“Pep rally, remember? She's probably getting ready to do the whole cheerleading thing,” Nyma answered, leaning a bit closer. Hunk mouthed a small “oh" before nodding.

“How'd you forget about the pep rally today? It's for Homecoming,” Blumpflump raised an eyebrow.

Hunk shrugged, “Just didn't cross my mind.”

Plaxum sighed, “I wish swimming got a float. We _never_  get a float.”

“That's because we never organize one. Plus you like the pep rally too much to skip out on it to get ready for the parade,” Lance had been on the theater float last year but he had forgotten completely about it. Not that he was in the mood for throwing candy at the local middle schoolers or anyone else who showed up.

“Are you guys going to the game tonight?” Nyma asked. “We’ve been doing pretty good this year, right Jared?”

The only football player at their table was getting ready to leave, fries stuffed into his mouth as he hurried to catch up for the float. He nodded his head before running off.

Nyma turned back to the rest of them, “Bet this is the first year we’re not going to lose our homecoming game.”

For the past few years, the Voltron Lions had lost almost every single football game. Especially their homecoming game, so Lance never saw the point in attending any of the games for the sport just going for the social reasons (not that he _understood_ football, he probably wouldn't even go for the actual game now).

“I hope so. It'll be nice to see us win this homecoming. It's the last one I can go to as a student of the school,” Hunk stated.

“I just want to know who's throwing the best party this year?” Lance looked at Nyma, who smirked and began to tell him about all of the details she had heard so far.

Conversation at the table continued, most of them about who typically threw the best party in terms of prior years.

There was the sudden crackle of the intercom system that the school used. The principal began to dismiss students by their class, letting seniors go first. The seniors were the smallest class so it made sense but Lance wanted to enjoy his lunch. He felt a bit disappointed that it was cut short.

When they got to the gym, Hunk leasing Lance towards a good corner to sit in on the bleachers, the kids in the school band were already playing the fight song. Pep rallies went in _hard_. Soon the other classes began to pour into the gym, each one bigger than the last. The volume didn't bother Lance, but the number of colors he saw and the number of feelings that hit him all at once was almost too much. Lance usually got caught up in the atmosphere but being in one room with the entire school and the entire staff made his head spin.

“You okay, dude?” Hunk asked him when Lance gripped onto the back of his jacket.

“I'm okay. The amount of people just made me a little bit dizzy,” Lance attempted to reassure Hunk.he steeled himself, and willed the auras to go away at the least. He tried to focus on Hunk’s feelings, sensing that his best friend was a little bit overwhelmed himself.

“Wow, it's uh, really loud this year,” Hunk leaned in close so he could talk easily to Lance. Lance nodded in agreement and patted Hunk’s knee

“We’ll escape as soon as possible,” he assured him. Lance hoped that Hunk would feel comforted at the thought, just wanting to make sure that at least one of them was comfortable and relaxed.

It seemed to work since soon Lance could feel the tension leaving Hunk’s body next to him, and could feel him being literally calmed down. Lance removed his hand from his knee.   
The pep rally started out with the band playing the school fight song on repeat for a hit before the principal took over, giving a speech that was meant to be inspirational and show support to the team. The principal was an older woman in her late 40s that Lance couldn't remember ever actually having a conversation with.

Her grin was large, her enthusiasm for sports shining through as if she was a high schooler again. “Let's give a big Lion roar,” Lance felt weirdly negative at that statement and glanced around to detect who was putting him in such a foul mood out of nowhere, annoyance itching his throat, “To our lovely senior players!” The principal shouted into the mic.

The cheerleaders began to cheer, doing a routine that was typical. Lance spotted Ezor, her brightly dyed hair stuck out. Lance watched them for a few moments before glancing towards where the football players were supposed to be coming out. They hadn’t come out yet and Lance felt a spike of panic and even more irritation.

Slowly the room full of high schoolers began to quiet down, confusing flitting across everyone's faces. The principal furrowed her brows, talking to the football coach who nodded his head. The coach began to head towards the doors, where the players were meant to come through by running into a large piece of paper that was held up by two members of the colored guard on each side for stability.

The coach barely got close enough to speak to anyone on the other side before someone came through.

She was big and had a wide grin on her face that Lance could only describe as manic. Her hair was shortly cropped and flared out on the sides before curling near her chin, it was dyed a dark purple with some pink undertones. There was a scar under her right eye and she had on blue lipstick. She had darkly tanned skin and her aura was aggressively red. She oozed muscle power.

The gymnasium was stunned but the principal picked back up her mic, “Who are you?” she asked, and Lance saw that the school officer was already moving to apprehend the woman. The coach was doing the same.

The woman pushed them both out of the way easily, marching up the principal and grabbing her arm. She pinned it behind her without much effort, bringing her to her knees.

Naturally, everyone in the gym began to freak out, rising from their seats and moving towards the door. Some students began to rush towards the woman.

A man stepped in, an easy-going smile on his face as if he wasn't walking in on a bunch of high schoolers attempting to flee. “I suggest you all sit down,” his voice was calm, but his tone left no room for questioning. “Otherwise Zethrid here will have to deal with you,” he gestured to the first woman who had come in. Zethrid gave them a sharper grin, twisting their principal's arm further.

Lance looked over at Hunk, feeling him tense up, knowing he recognized the voice and the dumb half mask. Hunk began to fiddle around for his phone and Lance looked away, trying not to bring attention to him. Everyone in the room froze, looking over at the man. Another woman followed him. She had a dark purple hijab, her eyes were white and didn’t focus on anything. A cat hopped off her shoulders, prowling around the gym. It wasn’t a large cat but it’s presence alone made the students back away. Lance saw that someone had begun to blow bubbles out of fear, literal bubbles emerging from them they were some fun toy a child was playing in the summertime.

Every time the cat was near them, Lance felt himself shrink naturally into Hunk. Hunk was nervous again but he was concerned mainly. Lance was too, glancing at where their principal was. Their football coach was resting an injured shoulder and their school officer seemed to be doing the same.

“Now that I have your undivided attention,” the man began, “You may call me Lotor. I've come here with a proposition to you all,” his words were smooth and silky. Lance saw that he was another red, mixed in with purple so it created a maroon shade.

“How many of you here have abilities? Powers that you have been forced to tamper down for your entire lives?” Lotor was scanning the crowd of students through his mask, his eyes landing on the kid, a freshman who was trembling like a leaf (a friend next to her grabbed her hand). “You, have you ever been encouraged to properly control the powers you have? Surely they may seem useless, but with the right control or perhaps even being taught that they were your gift to own you wouldn't have such an obvious tell of fear.” He narrowed his eyes at her.

Lotor turned back to the rest of the student body. “I know the amount of people with abilities in this room is small. But we are growing stronger. Since most of your parents were born, our population has grown. Our abilities have gained more strength, take Narti, for example,” Lotor gestured to the blind woman. The cat went towards her, running itself between her legs before hopping onto her shoulders.

It seemed to stare right at Lance.

“Her mother had the ability to communicate with animals. It was a minor, small thing. We assume that her father had some sort of ability for sight. And while Narti was born blind, the combination of those two powers have allowed her to connect with Kova who has become Narti’s eyes.”

Lotor looked around, “So you see, your generation has the ability to be the strongest yet. There's no reason for you to all deny the powers that are so natural to you. Why should we be stunted? Why shouldn't you be allowed to learn how to fully harvest your abilities? Your powers can go so much further than they are now, they can grow, _you_  can become stronger.”

He stepped closer to the group of teenagers and Ezor backed up, her eyes wide and for a moment, fading away as if trying to cloak in with the background. Lance tensed up, Hunk next to him too before Lotor walked away.

Lance resisted the urge to say something, biting down on his tongue.

“The opportunity for you to grow is with us. I'm sure you've all heard of the Galra, and I assure you we are nothing like what the media and textbooks would have you believe,” Lotor placed his hand on his chest as if trying to seem sincere.

A sudden burst of confidence from nowhere, and Lance went to rise but a sophomore beat him to it. The sophomore had a dark look on their face, glaring at Lotor and trying to seem intimidating despite their glasses beginning to fall down their nose. Kova jumped off of Narti, heading towards the sophomore who seemed like a deer caught in the headlights now that they were in the moment.

Lance stood, “What makes you think we can trust you!?” He projected across the gym to Lotor, who raised the eyebrow that they could see, a slow half smirk coming across his face. The sophomore was nodding wildly, still seeming tongue-tied when their friend dragged them down by the back of their shirt.   
  
“Lance!” Hunk whispered next to him. “We were trying to play it _cool,_ ” he whispered again, only loud enough for Lance to hear.

Lotor turner, facing Lance. Zethrid looked over at him, waiting.for a command. The principal was muttering something under her breath. Lotor shook his head at Zethrid and Kova returned to Narti, the cat's eyes narrowing at Lance.

“I assure you we mean you no harm. I understand we haven't done much to earn your trust. I know you're all aware of the most recent attack and I would like to apologize on behalf of those who committed it. Sometimes members of the Galra take extreme measures when they're not necessary,” Lotor was looking right at Lance now. Lance matched his stare with a glare.

“We will give you the best opportunities possible. The ability to see the world, to grow, to get stronger and smarter,” Lotor wasn't a great salesman to Lance. Lance knew that he had orchestrated the attack.

“Joining the Galra is in your best interest. In the near future, it might be your safest option. Who else will teach you?” Lotor was now addressing the entire gym again and Lance sat back down, Hunk giving him an expression of panic and confusion. Lance patted his arm, knowing it will bring no reassurance but Hunk calmed down at his touch. Lance didn't think much of it, figuring that Hunk was just relieved in knowing Lance wouldn't do that again (probably).

“Voltron?” Lotor continued on distaste in his town at the mention of the organization. “Voltron is nothing now. Do you think because they can stop a mere few petty criminals they would be of any use? No,” the disdain was gone now. He stalked the gym, looking at the students like a predator to its prey.

“Join the Galra,” his voice was smooth again. “Together we are stronger--" Lotor was cut off by Kova jumping away from Narti, the hair on the back of his spine rising up as he let out a loud hiss.

The smell of smoke and Lance watched someone ran in, incredibly fast, (Keith, Lance could recognize him despite his mask) and landed a punch to Lotor’s face. Lotor’s head flew back for a moment and Lance could see blood from where he sat. It was like a spell had been broken.

Zethrid moved to attack Keith, and Narti rushed towards someone else. Shiro. The sight of Shiro had everyone on their feet, some people rushing to help their principal as Lotor now dodged Keith’s attacks with ease. Lance met Hunk’s eyes and the two of them nodded at each other, the both of them making sure that people didn't get in the way of the fight.

Lance pulled back a junior by their shirt, the junior turning around and seeming surprised. They were floating off of the ground and Lance struggled a moment to get them back down.

He glanced at the action, his classmates moving away from the scene when Shiro gestured them away. Of course, they would listen to him. Lance felt starstruck for a moment, realizing that he was actually watching the Paladin at work.

Zethrid was charging towards Shiro but Lotor stopped her with his hand. He moved closer to her. “Narti!” he shouted, wiping the blood away from his face. Narti went towards him, Kova jumping into her arms. The three stuck to each other's sides, Zethrid throwing down a small ball that puffed into smoke.

It stung, quickly filling up the room. Lance covered his nose and mouth with his arm, coughing. When he looked again, the three Galra members were gone.

Lance didn't remember what happened after that, the smoke choking him.  
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

Lance woke up with a start. Someone pressed him down gently, “Stay down,” they instructed him. His ears were ringing and everything else sounded muffled. He felt like he was coming out of a dream. Slowly everything came back to him.

“What?” His voice was raspy, and he wasn't able to complete his thought.

The EMT that was looking over him explained as she removed towels away from his head and neck, “You fainted due to the smoke. Nothing too serious,” she looked at him. “Do you remember where you were?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance did not remember. He took in his current surroundings. Back of an ambulance. In his school parking lot. School. Gym. “The gym?” The EMT seemed satisfied by this answer, nodding her head.

The EMT began to explain to him what happened. There wasn't a lot to fill him in on. Just that the gas had something in it that had made everyone sick, and most students faint. If they hadn't fainted then they were at least very dizzy.

The EMT made Lance sit in a chair for a while longer before deeming him acceptable. “I suggest you call someone to pick you up, if your parents aren't already here,” Lance noticed the large crowd outside of their school now, frantic guardians hugging children older siblings doing the same, kids on the phone and some being interviewed by the police or local news, “You shouldn't be driving in this condition,” the EMT told him when he got out of the back on shaky legs.

Lance just nodded and thanked them. He looked around, trying to find Hunk, Or Shiro, or Keith. Even if he couldn't talk to the last two when they were in costume in public and he wasn't. He couldn't find any of them and tried to avoid the newscasters. Some kid, the junior that was floating he recognized, spotted him and began to talk to a police officer.

“Lance!” He whipped around as soon as he heard his mother call out for him. She reached him the same time that the officer did. “ _Mijo_ ,” she pulled him into a hug and Lance bent down to hug her down properly.

“Hey, ma,” his voice was still pretty rough.

“Ma'am,” the officer spoke up. Lance pulled away from the hug when he recognized the voice. He was a bit surprised to see Thace. Wasn't he on the task force working with Voltron? Lance supposed it made sense for him to be there. He wondered if Thace remembered him, and hoped he wouldn't say anything to his mother.

“Do you mind if I have a word with your son? We just need to get a witness statement,” Thace gave her a very small smile. Lance’s mother had clung herself to his arm.

Lance smiled at her, “It’ll be fast.”

Her shoulders sagged and she slowly moved away from Lance, “If it's necessary,” she let him go.

Thace nodded, “Thank you.” He and Lance stepped away from his mother.

Thace asked him basic questions, such as descriptions of the people who had broken into his school, their actions, their motivation if they had shared it. When the simple part was done, Thace looked at him. “You're not on the field, are you?” Thace asked him.

Lance was started by the question, glancing around to see if anyone heard. He shook his head when he noticed no one was paying them any mind, “No. Allura hasn't cleared me yet. Keith is trying to get me up to speed.”

A nod of understanding, “That'll need to be sped up. There should be a meeting tonight, so I'll see you then. Get some rest, you still look dizzy.” Thace seemed like he had wanted to say more but had held himself back. Lance was just relieved to know he wasn't going to scold him.

Lance nodded and rejoined his mother, who took him home almost immediately. He sent a text to Hunk, letting him know about his situation.

The traffic to get home was insane and his mother's knuckles were white on the steering wheel. The drive was spent in silence, and once they got home Lance’s mother led them inside quietly too. The pets greeted them.

“We can pick up your car tomorrow. If you need a ride anywhere then just ask your father, your sister, or me,” she told him. She then turned to look at him, watching him kick off his shoes.

“Are you okay Lance?” She asked, her voice gentle and soft. Her aura was a soothing light purple, lavender almost. She radiated concern and worry, she had been so anxious, hadn't she?

Lance hugged her again. “I'm fine, mama,” he reassured her, “I wasn't close to the action.”

“I know. I know. But someone said that you had said something to them. What were you think? They could have hurt you,” she clung to him like he was a lifeline. Lance heard her voice crack and her shoulders trembled. Lance hated when his mother cried and he wished he was able to calm her, reassure her that he was okay.

“They didn't hurt any of the students. I'm okay mom,” he told her. She sniffled, and the waterworks stopped as soon as they started. Her anxious energy went away and was replaced with a relieved calm.

“I'm just glad that you're safe,” she told him, pulling away from the hug and sniffing. She wiped at her face with her sleeve hurriedly. “Do you want some tea?” She asked him.

Lance grabbed her hands, giving them a small squeeze and nodding, “Tea sounds great. Thank you,” he kissed her cheek. “I'm going to go shower, okay?” He could still faintly smell the smoke that they had used.

His mom nodded her head and let Lance rush away to his bathroom. Lance was surprised by how calm she was. It was almost magic since his mother was easy to work up and hard to bring back down. He loved her but she was an easy crier and when she cried it was more akin to sobbing.

Lance decided to worry about it later. There were more important things on hand.

His phone buzzed, Lance stopped halfway down the stairs to look at it.

**[UNSAVED NUMBER]**  
3:30 PM  
Voltron @ 1900

**[UNSAVED NUMBER]**  
3:30 PM  
This is Coran by the way!!!! Hello Lance :) :) Hope you're doing alright!!!

**[Lonce]**  
3:31 PM  
I'll be there  
Also, I'm fine, hi Coran

Lance wondered how he was going to get there without his car. He entered his basement room and looked around, eyes landing on the bike he hadn't used since the summer at the very least.

Well, it would have to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> catch me trying to shove in every character from voltron in some way


	8. Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd, please tell me of any mistakes I missed

Keith’s jaw was aching. There was a dark bruise already developing there, as well as several other parts of his body. His knuckles on his left hand especially hurt but that was a given since he had punched Lotor hard enough to break his nose. Zethrid had definitely packed a punch. He didn’t think that that had been her full strength either. Even without her full strength Keith had been thrown around by her like he was a doll, most of the fight had been spent with Keith ducking and weaving to get away from her. Zethrid had plenty of openings, but she made it hard to take advantage of them since she kept charging at him with her fist.

Shiro had been busy too, but before the two of them could make a proper attack the three villains moved together and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He counted himself lucky that he didn’t faint. The smoke had filled the gymnasium quickly, leaving most inside ill or fainted. Keith covered his face quickly, wrapping a red bandana he carried around around his face. Shiro’s face was covered with his helmet mask, making it easy for him to prevent getting affected by the gas.

Keith moved quickly, both of them did. The student body was large but he was fast.

Emergency services were already on site and moved in to help when given the signal from Shiro, who was able to communicate with them through his helmet. He helped lead any students who were still able to walk outside and get them to help (Hunk had been part of that group, he slurred his speech a little but seemed fine otherwise, to Keith it seemed more like he was drunk than anything else). Then he moved on to helping Shiro and emergency responders carry out the passed out students as fast as they all could.

Keith spotted Lance, slumped on the bleachers. His body was in an uncomfortable position, the seats digging into his back and his spine curved in a way that Made Keith feel bad for how he would feel when he woke up. Picking Lance up was only difficult due to his long limbs. Keith had to cradle him to properly carry him out of the gymnasium, Lance’s neck supported by his arm, Keith’s arm under Lance’s knees with his hands ensuring a safe grip of someone who was essentially dead to the world.

The smoke was beginning to get to him, so Keith held Lance closer as he got him out of the building. Thankfully Lance had been relatively close to the emergency exits. There was a moment when Keith was carefully carrying Lance down from the bleachers that Lance stirred, gripping onto Keith as he woke up, looked at Keith, mumbled something in Spanish, and then went back under.

Keith just took it as a good sign that Lance was alive, delivering him to the EMTs. They tried to make him sit down and attempted to examine how he was feeling but Keith brushed them off. Instead he went back in and made sure that everyone was out of the building, linking back up with Shiro when he saw that everyone was done. There was nausea building up in his own stomach but he ignored it.

“Any idea what’s in that gas?” Keith asked him, an EMT walking away from Shiro.

Shiro shook his head. “They can’t tell yet. But they’re going to run blood test on people who agree to it,” he informed Keith who nodded his head. “Lance is okay?”

“Seems to be. He woke up for a moment but he fell back unconscious. I think he’ll be okay. Hunk still hanging around?” Keith asked.

Shiro shook his head, “Sent him home as soon as he was cleared. We’ll see him tonight but I think he was definitely the least affected out of everyone.” That wasn’t surprising. Hunk had an amazing tolerance for things due to his abilities.

Thace was heading over towards them and Keith found himself standing up a bit straighter. “Paladin,” Thace nodded in greeting, “Fire Starter.” He did the same greeting to Keith who returned it.

“We’re working on a way to figure out the location of the Galra members,” Thace told the two of them. “Did you see how they disappeared?”

Shiro shook his head, “No. The smoke covered everything.” He looked over at Keith.

“For a moment it seemed like something had opened up behind them, but I didn’t see anything and it may have just been the smoke playing tricks on me,” Keith informed Thace.

Thace nodded. “We’ve already gained their names from the kids who are still upright and able to talk,” he said. “We should be able to gather some more data and intel by the time we meet up again tonight. Anything else you can tell us that would help?”

“Zethrid seems to be incredibly strong. There’s a chance she may have the same super strength as Hunk but I can’t be sure,” Keith informed Thace.

“Narti doesn’t seem to have any other abilities other than being connected to the cat. Lotor also didn’t seem to have any observable abilities,” Shiro shared. “I don’t know what to expect from him.”

Again, Thace nodded. “I’ll try to find out more information from the kids. Have fun dealing with the media. Remember to not cause a panic,” Thace seemed to target the last note for Keith, looking at him.

“We’ll do our best. Thank you, officer,” Shiro gave Thace a nod before Thace left the two of them.

As soon as they were alone, they were bombarded by journalists and the cameras that accompanied them. Shiro did most of the damage control. He was able to explain the situation and inform the media the best that they were able to with the information that they had. Keith sort of stood the side, his arms crossed over his chest and with his face being covered, probably looking intimidating. A scary looking side kick to balance out the Paladin’s household name.

Honestly, Keith was overwhelmed with the amount of questions that they were asked. He was also overwhelmed with the mics in Shiro’s face and the amount of cameras. The questions sometimes veered off topic, or got into into dangerous territories. Also, he had the urge to throw up but he bit it down.

“This is the second attack made by the Galra. Is this a sure sign that they’re coming back? Do you believe that Voltron has the force to defend the city from them?” One reporter asked, basically shoving her mic into Shiro’s face.

“Voltron is able to handle anything that may come our way. There isn’t any need for anyone in the city to panic. We’re working hard with the local police force to ensure everyone’s safety,” Shiro spoke calmly.

“How can you say that we’re safe when our students, our children, have been recently attacked?” Another reporter asked.

“While the Galra seemed to have sprayed something to affect the consciousness of the students, no other harm seems to be done,” Shiro didn’t mention the recruitment.

Keith wondered if Shiro was doing a good job with the media. If it was Keith, he would just tell them that he had everything covered and for them to leave him alone.

Good thing it wasn’t Keith. He was terrible with people and couldn't imagine himself with the media.

Eventually, they managed to get away from the media. Shiro told them that they had debrief with the rest of Voltron, which was true. There were minor details that Shiro didn’t mention, such as the fact that they had two people in Voltron who had been affected by the gas. The fact that only a handful of Voltron’s employees were actually on the field, the others rarely even went inside the building and worked at home. Another was that they were a bit loss about what to do.

Keith knew that they would figure that out. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Shiro and Keith spent the entire time getting back to the Voltron building avoiding the press, and anyone else they could avoid. Voltron ha given Shiro a motorcycle that was sleek and fast and Keith wanted one of his own. It was useful, allowing them to weave through traffic without effort (usually Keith wouldn't mind but it wasn't doing any favors for him the nausea department).

When the two of them returned to Voltron, Allura was already trying to figure things out. She looked at the two of them and then looked at Coran who spoke up before Allura could.

“The two of you go and clean up. We’re pulling a meeting together around 1900, since Hunk and Lance both need a bit of time to recover. Lance more than Hunk but the fact still stands that rest is necessary for them both,” Coran smiled at Keith and Shiro. It was relieving to hear that their teammates were going to be fine.

Keith pulled off his mask and took his hair down, running his fingers through it. “Shouldn’t we --”

“I got it covered, Keith. Go hit the showers,” Shiro clapped his hand on Keith’s back. Keith looked up at him, pleading silently to stay. At least for just a moment. “Go, Keith,” Shiro dismissed him again.

Keith’s mouth twisted into a frown and he nodded his head, heading towards the showers like Shiro told him too.

The shower he took was brief. It was enough to get the sweat off of him, long enough to see the bruises that were already forming on his skin. He still felt nauseous but not as terrible as before. When he was finished, Keith got dressed and headed back towards Allura’s office. Keith got back to the office as fast as he was able to. There wasn’t a lot of conversation going on. Shiro was sitting in a chair, helmet off and looking thoroughly exhausted already.

When Keith entered the room all of them looked at him. “Am I allowed to be in here again?” Keith asked them, feeling a bit miffed that they had just casted him out of the conversation. Keith understood that he wasn’t on the same level as them. He didn’t have the same clearance as Shiro did, Allura and Coran were the ones running Voltron. But Keith felt like he should know about what they were saying.

If it was important to the Galra, to the situation they had on their hands, then he wanted to be aware of every single detail.

“Yes, you are,” Allura nodded, looking at him. “How do you feel? Any lasting effects from the smoke?”

Keith shook his head, sitting down on a chair next to Shiro. “No. I don’t even feel dizzy,” he told her. “I wasn’t heavily affected though.”

Allura looked over at Shiro who also shook his head. “I wasn’t affected at all. My helmet screen kept all the smoke clear from me.”

“That’s good. Maybe we should consider giving you all similar face guards. If the Galra have more technology that can attack people like that then we should make sure that you’re all protected,” Allura tapped her chin. “Coran,” she looked at her advisor.

Coran had already been writing what she said down, “I’ll inform Matt about it.”

“Good. Make sure he makes helmets for everyone, not simply those who go into the field,” Allura told Coran who nodded.

“Speaking of Matt,” the mention of his boyfriend’s name made Shiro easily distracted, he sat up straighter. “Where is he?” Shiro asked.

“Last time I checked he went out to get himself some lunch, but he should be back by now,” Coran checked the time.

Shiro stood up. “I packed him a lunch,” he mumbled, mainly to himself.

“He probably dropped it in something again,” Keith commented dryly. Shiro sighed, shaking his head before heading towards Matt’s usual workroom. “Shower first, Shiro!” Keith called after him before turning to Allura and Coran.

Allura and him made eye contact with each other for a moment. “What is it, Keith?” Allura asked him.

“What do you think is their ultimate goal now? Do you think it’s the same as before?” Keith asked her.

Allura sighed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “It seems to be that way. The same extremist views. But there may be more underneath, we’re not sure yet.”

Keith frowned, he wanted to know all of those things now but knew it was going to take time. A lot of time. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be at the meeting. If you need me before then I’ll be doing some power training.” He stood up from his chair, leaving the room and heading down towards one of many of the power-safe rooms in the building to literally blow off some steam.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁  


Eventually, it became time for the meeting. Keith found himself in the same conference room that they had been in when the Galra had first appeared. Pidge and Matt had arrived together, and Pidge was set on examining one helmet that Matt had made. It was dark red, similar to Shiro’s in function but seemed to still reflect what Keith wore in his costume. It appeared to be a lot sleeker and more suiting for him, closer to a motorcycle helmet than the 80s anime esque one that Shiro used.

Matt had shown up with it and another helmet, that one a dark gold. Keith wondered how he was able to get them done so quickly (another thought followed that and he remembered that Matt had the abilities to literally speak to technology). Shiro was standing next to the two siblings from when he walked in with them, one arm permanently attached to Matt’s waist, changed out of his Paladin suit and into civilian clothing. Hunk had gotten there earlier than necessary, the two of them having spent most of their time chatting.

Lance had been second last to arrive. He came running in on wobbly legs, his face red. When he showed up he explained to them how he had gotten there, and how he had thought he was late so he ran and now was out of breath. Keith blamed it on the smoke, feeling that at this point Lance should have been able to handle a bike ride.

When Matt, Pidge, and Shiro walked in any civil conversation with Hunk went out the window.

“I get a helmet!” Hunk gasped, going towards Matt and Pidge. Pidge held them away from him, handing them to Matt.

“No touching! They’re still prototypes,” Pidge slapped Hunk’s hand away.

“I want to see what you guys have done so far,” Hunk pouted. “Your work is always so good,” he looked at Matt with puppy dog eyes.

“Am I getting a helmet?” Lance asked, going towards the Holt siblings as well.

“Yes, you’re getting a helmet. Please leave the two of them alone,” Allura told the three.

“I want my helmet to be blue.”

“Lance,” she sent a warning glance at Lance who backed away from Pidge and Matt slowly. “Thank you,” she smiled an award winning smile when the siblings were made alone. “We’re here to discuss moving forward on the Galra. Lance and Hunk, you two saw the way that the three worked. What can you tell us?”

Lance was looking better than he did earlier, Keith noted. His skin was less pale and he was actually conscious. Nothing about his behavior would make Keith think that he had fainted earlier if Keith hadn’t been there himself.

Lance rolled his neck as he spoke, “That Zethrid chick brought down our gym doors. She also broke our principals arm like it was a really, really, thin twig. So, she probably has super strength or something. Also they all had similar auras? Like they were all shades of red, but not like completely red. There were just a lot of tints of red in them, also a different red than Keith.” He told them.

Hunk nodded, “Yeah I agree. About the power thing, I have no idea about their auras. Narti seemed blind but she didn’t seem dependant on the cat she had with her. They seemed to work together like they were connected mentally, or something.”

“I thought the Blade people were going to be here tonight?” Lance interrupted to look around the room.

“They had other matters to attend to,” Allura waved him off. “Now, Hunk. You’ll be able to go on paroles on your own. You as well Keith. Pidge you’ll begin patrolling with either Shiro or Coran,” Coran high-fived Pidge when Allura shared that information. “Lance, we’re speeding you up to patrolling. You’re only to patrol with Shiro and Keith, and only if they call you into action.”

Lance pouted, “I can’t patrol with Hunk?”

“Eventually, you’ll be able to. But you still need major mentoring and Shiro and Keith are the best to provide that for you, Shiro especially as neither of you have abilities that can be weaponized,” Allura was reading from some notes.

“Uh, actually,” Hunk began. Allura looked up from her notes at him, daring him to question her. “I’m cool with this system. But Lance should be called in for any civilian distress.”

Allura furrowed her brows, “Why?”

“Yeah, why?” Even Lance seemed confused.

“Dude, do you not remember what happened today?” Hunk asked him. At Lance’s confused expression, he continued, “You calmed me down with one touch.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, looking over at Allura and then looked at Lance. “What?” Lance repeated.

“Yeah, you totally changed my feelings. I didn’t mind at the time but that’s totally a thing you can do,” Hunk said.

Lance went silent for a moment. “Oh my god that definitely explains what happened with my mom,” his realization dawned on his face, his eyes went wide and his mouth formed a small ‘o’.

“What happened with your mom?” Keith asked, unable to look away from Lance.

Lance scratched his cheek. “She was really upset about the incident at school. Scared and stuff. So I gave her a hug, and I wanted her to calm down and stop crying because seeing your mom cry suchs a lot, y’know? And it took her a few seconds but she suddenly just calmed down out of nowhere and stopped crying. She acted like everything was okay.”

“So you have a calming effect on people?” Allura asked.

“Well, maybe?” Lance shrugged.

“It might be more than just calming people down. Lance’s powers are still developing, right? So if he has this then he might be able to completely alter someone's emotions,” Pidge spoke up.

There was a moment of silence. “Lance, you’re going to help in ensuring that civilians are safe and calm enough to give witness reports. Don’t abuse the power to calm people, or shift emotions if you’re able to do more than just calm,” Allura told him, making intense eye contact with Lance. Lance nodded enthusiastically.

“I’ll keep a hold on it, I promise,” he stuck up both of his hands as if surrendering. Keith still stared at him. Allura nodded her head.

“Good, now, moving on. We’re administering all of you helmets. As proven by Shiro’s helmet today, it’ll be beneficial for your health in case more scenarios like today happen when out on the field,” Allura continued with the meeting.

“Uh, what about me? I didn’t really get super effected,” Hunk raised his hand a little bit, reminding Keith of when he was in high school. God, those days were the worst.

“You were still affected, right Hunk?” Allura asked him and Hunk nodded. “So then you’ll get a helmet. Even if it wasn’t a lot, we still want to make sure that you’re protected.”

Keith thought that all of them getting helmets was kind of cool. Not that he would admit it out loud.

“We’ll be increasing patrols, Lance figure out what you need in your costumes and what you need techwise. Meet with Matt and work that out. Matt make sure to keep me updated there. Continue working on your powers with Coran,” she looked at Lance again. Lance nodded, agreeing with her.

“Keith,” she looked at him now. “Follow Shiro’s lead. You have a lot more freedom now. Kolivan with the detectives would like to talk to you as well, I’ll pass on the information he gave me to you,” Allura said. Keith wondered what Kolivan could want from him but he didn’t say anything, just giving her a nod of confirmation.

The rest of the meeting sort of passed Keith by in a blur. He found himself staring at Lance again, and again. Lance was okay, he was safe, clearly. Keith hadn’t been super worried about his well-being but carrying someone in your arms made you automatically concerned about them.

Keith also wondered how far his abilities would go. Keith’s own powers were rather simple. He had super speed, yes, but he wasn’t the type of fast that you blinked and he was a blur in the distance. He supposed his speed wasn’t really super. It was more just extremely fast. His fire abilities somehow helped him out with his speed but he didn’t really understand that. His flames were also simple to explain. He could breathe fire, he could basically turn himself into a human torch but found it easier to just channel it all into his hands or his feet.

His powers developed quickly when he was younger, most of it happening before puberty. So he couldn’t understand being almost done maturing and just gaining your abilities.

Lance glanced over at him, and for a moment the two of them met each others eyes. Keith looked away as quick as he could, instead staring at Allura again. He still had no idea what she was talking about. Which was pretty bad. Keith hadn’t meant to get so distracted, but he had gotten caught up in staring at Lance like some sort of idiot.

“One last note for you all,” Keith suddenly began to be able to actually listen to what Allura was saying, not just hear her and not understand, “Be alert at all times. We may have to call you out more frequently, given the gravity of a situation. The more prepared you are the better our outcomes will be.” Allura’s expression was made of stone.

All of them nodded their head. “Always,” he promised Allura, the others saying their own promises. Hearing those words made Allura relax a bit.

“You're all dismissed,” Allura told them, pushing a hand through her hair.

“Lance,” Coran moved towards him, wrapping an arm around Lance’s shoulders. Keith watched Coran lead Lance away for a moment, the two of them talking privately. Lance’s face was serious and concentrated on what Coran was saying. Keith couldn't hear them. The seriousness faded when Coran clapped Lance on the shoulder, laughing loudly and hard enough that his mustache hairs twitched while Lance just seemed confused.

“Why are you staring so hard at Lance?” Hunk’s voice was right at his ear and Keith startled.

“I'm not staring at him,” Keith immediately became defensive, squaring his shoulders.

“Really? Because it seemed like you were staring at him the entire time. Not like glaring but just reallly concentrated on his face,” Hunk rubbed his chin in thought. He looked at Keith closely before seeming to let go of it. “Have you checked out the game I told you about?”

“No, I haven't had the time. I've been busy,” Keith shrugged. “You know, with the Galra.”

Hunk frowned at him, “It’s okay to leave your job behind sometimes. You're still a teenager you can still act like one.”

“Sure,” Keith said, even though he thought he had more important things to do.

“Good,” Hunk replied, although Keith knew that he knew that Keith thought the Galra were more important than anything else in that moment.

Keith turned when he heard footsteps approaching, seeing Lance with hands on his hips and a brow raised. “What's with the weird energy over here?” He looked between the two of them.

“What weird energy?” Hunk immediately asked back.

“Hunk, I can literally sense your emotions,” Lance deadpanned.

“Okay. Okay. We were just talking about what happened at school today,” Hunk lied almost too effortlessly in Keith’s opinion.

“Oh,” Lance tilted his head and looked at Keith, “Were you affected by the smoke at all?” Lance asked him.

Keith shrugged, “Only a little bit. I tried not to breathe that much of it in. At the worse I was a bit nauseous.”

Lance sighed, “You both got off lucky. Hunk was dizzy for like, a minute at the most, meanwhile I full on fainted. Like a damsel in distress.”

“Yeah, I know. I carried you out of the gym,” Keith crossed his arms over his chest.

“You did?” Lance blinked in surprise.

“You don’t remember?” Keith asked. “You woke up for a moment and said something in Spanish before passing out again.”

“Oh he does that when he's sleeping sometimes, it’s terrifying,” Hunk added in. Lance was nodding in agreement.

“I really don't remember that happening,” Lance told Keith.

“I cradled you,” Keith informed him, “I thought that we had a moment or something.”

Lance furrowed his brows before shaking his head. “Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p’, “I don’t remember it. Pretty sure I would remember having a “moment or something" in your arms.” Keith felt weirdly betrayed by that, but he didn't say anything. Instead he just frowned.

Lance looked at him like he was trying to figure something out and Keith also suddenly felt exposed since Lance could feel what he felt.

“Maybe we can actually have some bonding time outside of you teaching me how to fight. We can hang out or something,” Lance suggested.

“Ohh! Am I invited?” Hunk looked between the two of them, excited.

“Dude, of course you're invited,” Lance looked at Hunk. “You're my best beo.”

“Bro,” Hunk touched his hand to his chest and Lance did the same.

“You fucks better not be planning something without me!” How Pidge heard, Keith had no idea but they were heading towards them, running. She stopped quickly and looked up at them all. “I'm in. Whatever we’re doing.”

“I haven't agreed to anything yet,” Keith looked at all three.

The trio stared at him for a moment and Keith felt himself deflate. “Fine,” he agreed, grumbling.

“It'll be good for you to do something else other than train and stay in bed watching conspiracy theories,” Pidge elbowed Keith in the side. “So, what are we doing?” They addressed the whole group.

Immediately Lance and Hunk began to discuss potential plans, Lance declaring he’ put them in a group chat despite many protests (mainly on Keith’s part, he didn't want to be bombarded with messages from all of them).

“We could just catch a movie and get lunch after,” Pidge suggested.

“Or just hang out, but I think seeing a movie and then seeing where the day takes us is a good idea,” Hunk agreed with Pidge.

“Both sound great to me,” Lance nodded. “Keith? Wanna do this total normal and not superhero related thing where we can pretend we’re in an indie film?”

“Sure,” he agreed. Normal team things. Lance brightened and turned to the other two.

“Okay, so we can take my car…”

“Wait, which theater are we going to?” Pidge asked, the conversation soon becoming busy and full of them figuring out what to do. Keith piped up every now and then but otherwise stayed quiet.

Normal teen things. Keith guessed he could try to spare a day.


	9. Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is highkey filler because I just wanted them to relax

All across the district, schools had been canceled for basically a week. Not that anyone minded. The majority of the school population didn’t feel safe enough to go back. Lance’s parents also felt that things were too dangerous for the students to go back. They also felt that it was too dangerous for him to step outside. That wouldn't be an issue if it also wasn't for the citywide curfew that had been placed. Sneaking out was easier for enjoyment rather than just Voltron things when he didn't run into a cop he knew every few blocks.

Also before he knew that he was going to begin patrolling to make sure curfew was followed and everything was safe (even though he hadn't started actually patrolling yet).

“They should cancel school for longer,” Lance’s dad commented. He was sitting in the den on his work computer, Lance’s mother was there with him and was reading next to him silently. Lance had only come in and interrupted the serene feeling of the room to let them know that he was leaving the house. He was sure that they knew about the school thing, and also knew that they would try to talk to him about it so he had already braced himself for that conversation.

“We don’t have that many snow days,” Lance shrugged his shoulders. “They probably don’t want to use them all in one go.” As much as he loved his dad, he knew that this conversation would take way longer than what he wanted it too.

His dad clicked his tongue, leaning back in his computer chair and staring at Lance. Lance wondered if he would look like his dad when he was older. Lance and his siblings looked like evenly mixed combinations of their parents, but Lance had his father's bone structure when it came to his jawline, nose, and mouth. He wondered if he grew a beard and developed the need for glasses. If he did then he supposed he would look like his grandfather more than his dad, since that was who Lance really resembled.

“I still think that you should get kore off. You won't feel safe going back to school for a while, or at least, your classmates won't,” what his dad was really saying was that they (he and his mother) wouldn't feel comfortable with Lance going back to school.

Lance gave his dad a small smile. “It'll be fine in the end. I don't think they'll pull the same trick twice. Especially because they're upping the security.”

That made his mom frown. “Upping security won't do anything if the Galra are stronger than them. I remember what the original group was like Lance… I don't want you guys to live in terror the same way I did. That's the whole point of being a parent, to make sure your life is better than the one we had,” his mom said, sharing a look with his dad.

His dad reached over, taking her hand in his and running his thumb over her knuckles. The look he gave her was soft in response, a small furrow of brows.

Lance scratched the back of his neck, “It will be better. I mean, they're not as strong as before. There seems to be less of them. Or at least, really powerful ones that actually mean it.” A few incidents had popped up since the attack on his school made the news. Most just seemed to be half-hearted attempts at people claiming to be Galra members.

It still worried Lance that soon people may actually mean it and give the Galra manpower that couldn't be stopped.

But Lance didn't express these anxieties and shoved the emotions back. He didn't need to influence other people into feeling the same way and end up causing a mass hysteria. Lance had to be extra collected now and make sure to keep himself in check.

Again, his parents shared a look. Lance had gotten good at understanding what they meant over time. That didn't work all the time before he developed his abilities. Now he could feel their apprehension and anxieties, the urge to protect and comfort, their natural instincts and the fear that they had.

“I'll be safe at school, and I'll be safe today when I go out. I can't stay in a bubble forever,” Lance said, putting his hands in his pocket.

His dad sighed, “I suppose you're right. Life has to continue like always.”

“Promise to call us if anything,” his mom asked him, “And stay with your friends at all times. If you're staying over at their houses let us know but abide by the curfew.” She instructed him.

“I will, máma,” Lance agreed.

A beat, hesitance. “Alright…” she sighed, giving in.

“Have fun,” his dad told him, Lance noticed he still felt very nervous. He just showed it less than Lance's mom did.

“Thanks,” Lance gave his parents a wider smile before leaving the room.

“And drive safe!” His mom shouted out to him.

“I will!” He shouted back. Lance slipped on his shoes and made sure he had everything before scratching his cat under the chin and giving his dog one last pet before heading out.

The plan was to grab Keith first since he was along the way to grab Hunk, after which they would pick up Pidge who was closest to their actual location of interest.

Lance started up his car, sitting there for a moment as he tried to decide who to listen to. He eventually decided on an artist and began to drive towards Keith’s place. Lance had asked him for his address, but that was just an appearance. For an odd reason, Lance was able to memorize the way to Keith's house with no issue. It was the same with Hunk and Pidge.

Hunk was from being friends for years. Lance probably only remembered where Pidge and Keith lived because of the circumstances surrounding the first time he drove to their respective houses.

The drive to Keith’s was quick. He parked outside, leaving the car running.

 **[Lonce]**  
12:35 PM  
Im outside

 **[Keef]**  
12:36 PM  
Omw

Lance waited patiently, setting his phone down. Soon enough he saw Keith come out of the building and lock the door behind him. Lance took the time between the house and the car to stare at Keith’s outfit. He wore a black bomber jacket with patches on top of a red flannel that was over a black shirt, black skinny jeans and black combat boots. Lance was sure that Keith had a simple closet since he always wore things that looked relatively similar. But it worked for him.

A lot.

Keith got into the car and Lance pretended like he hadn't been starring (Keith's boots were scuffed, he had several cryptid patches and spaces one as well on his jacket, his other patches were cool and Keith-looking). “Hey,” Lance greeted him.

“Hey,” Keith greeted back, buckling up and pulling his hair into a ponytail. The urge to stare was there again. “What song is this?” He asked.

“Oh, uh,” Lance glanced at his phone, still not driving. “anywayican by Walk The Moon,” he answered before driving towards Hunk’s house now. “You can change it if you want,” he told Keith, “My phone doesn't have a passcode.”

“No, I like it. Also, your phone should have a password,” Keith looked at him.

“Really? Thought you would have less poppy tastes, but Walk The Moon does release bops, so I get it,” Lance admitted, “Also, I have nothing to hide. No need for a passcode.”

Keith shrugged, “My taste leans towards rock more but I like this song. And a passcode isn't about hiding it’s about security. What if someone steals your phone?”

“What if I suddenly collapse and someone needs to see my emergency phone numbers?”

“Someone can see anything private you have.”

“I hope they enjoy my memes as much as the CIA agent who monitors my phone, then,” Lance joked. Keith snorted and Lance felt a bit satisfied by that.

They pulled into Hunk’s driveway. Hunk was faster than Keith to get into the car. Keith turned around to look at him, “Do you want to switch spots so you can have more leg room?” He asked Hunk. Lance found himself not wanting them to switch. He was content with Keith sitting next to him.

Hunk shook his head, “Nah. I’m fine back here with you in the front. Plenty of leg space. Also, Lance is the worst person to direct so I’m fine not having to do that job.” He gave Lance a wide smile.

“Are you sure you’re not bad at directions?” Lance asked him, knowing full well that he was shitty when it came to directions no matter what.

“Lance, you missed the turn three times when we last went to that haunted corn maze thing. The one where I had to drag you out of the space tube,” Hunk told him, also knowing full well that Lance was shitty with directions.

“Space tube?” Keith asked Lance began to head towards Pidge’s house.

“Yeah. We were on this little bridge walkway thing and it was like meant to be a portal or whatever to the horrors. It was one of those things where it spun around and made it seem like you were spinning but you were staying perfectly straight the entire time,” Hunk explained. “I had to drag Lance out by his shirt last because he just stood there instead of moving.”

“It was weird! I got dizzy and I thought I was actually moving,” Lance defended himself.

“I understand bud. But you also looked like Bambi trying to walk for the first time,” Hunk reached over and patted Lance’s shoulder, making him pout.

“I don’t like corn mazes,” Lance sighed.

“Isn’t the popular farm one still up? October isn’t over yet,” Keith piped up.

“Ooooh, Lance we can go!” Hunk looked at Lance with excitement and Lance spared him a glance. He grumbled to himself for a moment as they pulled onto Pidge’s street.

“I thought you hated being scared,” Lance said.

“I do. When I’m not doing it on purpose. Also, it’s just really more of the experience of getting to hang out with people. I can always just skip the horror corn maze and just chill. I’m sure someone would want to miss it anyway, or not have their ticket,” Hunk shrugged. Lance pressed his lips together.

He hated corn mazes. A lot.

Lance stopped in front of Pidge’s house and soon enough she climbed into the car too.

“Lance, it’ll be so much fun,” Hunk was still trying to agree.

“Hey, Pidge,” Keith greeted them.

“Hey. What is Hunk trying to convince Lance to do?”

“He won’t agree to go to the haunted corn maze. The main one at Olkari Farm’s,” Hunk explained.

Lance ignored them in an effort to just drive. “I’m not going back there.”

“Wait, what do you have against Olkari Farm’s?” Pidge asked. Keith stayed silent, seeming to just take in what was going on. Lance could feel Hunk’s eagerness and joy at the idea of them going to a stupid haunted corn maze, Pidge’s questioning and wanting to know more. “Did you get too scared last year?” Pidge teased him.

“What-? No,” Lance sputtered a bit. “Other than that weird portal thing I was fine. Thank you.”

“Is it because of that drunk guy who spilled basically his whole beer on you?” Hunk asked.

“Oh, I heard about that! I have a friend who worked there last year. Apparently, they also had this drunk lady who came in and just screamed ‘fuck you’ at every costumed person,” Pidge told them.

“Couldn’t they have kicked them out?” Keith asked.

“Not the drunk lady. Technically she wasn’t causing any harm. I think they kicked out the beer guy though, I didn’t know that that was you, Lance,” Pidge looked at him.

“It wasn’t even a big deal. I think they mainly kicked him out for being an overall asshole rather than just spilling beer on me. I just don’t like corn mazes,” Lance informed them.

“Really?” Hunk asked, then he paused and Lance could feel the realization hit him, “Wait. Ohhh. Ohh that makes so much sense now.” Hunk stated. He sounded amused, “Dude. I’m sorry and I love you but that was funny.”

“I know,” Lance sighed. “I still don’t want a repeat.”

“Wait, what happened?” Keith looked between Hunk and Lance.

“Should you explain or should I?” Hunk asked Lance.

Lance turned the blinker on as he pulled onto the highway, “I can explain it, I guess.” They had some time to drive and it wasn’t a very long story. The shopping plaza/outside mall they were going wasn’t super far from their town, they would have just stayed in their original mall but there was less to do there. Altea was considered a city but it wasn’t incredibly large. It was like, averagely sized at best and the movie theater sucked.

Pidge and Keith were looking at him expectantly. “Okay, so we were in the haunted corn maze. No big deal, for the most part. Except that I had tripped when we first entered it while in line and had a scrape on my knee the whole time. No big deal. And then the tube thing happened. And then I kept getting stepped on in the maze so I was stumbling the whole way through. Long story short, our friend stepped on my shoelaces, so I tripped. And then I fell into a costumed clown, knocking him down and into the corn and knocking the wind out of him. I also have a scar on my face from where the corn hit me,” Lance explained.

In retrospect, it wasn’t that bad. But Lance still felt mortified and like he couldn’t show his face back there ever again.

“You left out the best part. After he fell on the clown, he ended up on top and Lance realized he was on top of a creepy ass looking clown and his fight or flight responses must’ve not kicked in or something because his instinct was to tell it the worst pick-up line. I can’t even remember it now but after he said it the clown just wheezed. There was also a giant group of middle schoolers behind us,” Hunk added.

“I don’t remember what I said but the middle schoolers were the worst. Middle schoolers are vicious,” Lance shuddered a bit.

“Dude, I hated middle school,” Pidge added in. “Also, Lance. Are you into clowns?”

“You literally just got out of middle school this year,” Keith looked at Pidge with a raised brow.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t hate it. I think we’re avoiding the subject of interest her. Lance’s clown kink.”

“I don’t have a clown kink!” Lance protested.

“I don’t know, sounded like you have a clown kink,” Pidge hummed. “You’re like one of those people who wanted to fuck Pennywise when the IT movie came out.”

“Oh my god,” Lance whispered.

“Clown fucker,” Keith said quietly.

“Keith, no,” Lance pleaded with him. Keith just smiled and Lance frowned, “Okay. You can’t touch my phone now. I’m putting a passcode on it so that none of you can touch my phone and play music ever again.”

“A tragedy,” Pidge rolled her eyes before reaching forward and grabbing Lance’s phone. She had to sit awkwardly since it was connected through an aux cord, but they were typing quickly into it. “I’m putting on a playlist that Keith used to listen to a lot when we first met.”

“That was on my MP3 how did you?” Keith whipped around to look at Pidge.

“I just remade it, I knew all of the songs so it wasn’t hard,” Pidge waved him off before pressing play. As soon as Lance heard a familiar G chord, he laughed. Keith just sighed but Lance definitely caught him mouthing along to the lyrics. Pidge was singing along to the song loudly in the back seat.

The ride to the mall ended shorter than Lance had wanted it too. By the end they were listening to old songs, at least they were old to them. Songs like “Shake It” by Metro Station, or “Don’t Trust Me.” Essentially any song that really made them get excited in middle school (or younger, in Pidge’s case).

The group piled out of Lance’s car and went straight to the movie theater, not that there was much to distract them away from it. Pidge basically powerwalked over to it, not wanting to miss the movie even if they had time to spare. Which Lance was actually looking forward too. It was some horror movie. Usually, Hunk wasn’t the type to go for it but it was supposed to be more of a thriller than anything. Lance was just excited about it because it had one of his favorite actors.

“Are we all sharing popcorn?” Lance asked them.

“I’ll just get one of my own,” Hunk told Lance. “I’m pretty sure I have to eat more than the Rock at this point.”

“Imagine once your powers are officially developed. You can already punch down a short building I’m pretty sure,” Pidge told Hunk.

“Hunk, the strongest man alive,” Lance stated. “Imagine if your children get your abilities.”

“They’ll be stronger than him. If they don’t take after their other parent,” Keith was looking up at the snack menu. “If the three of us are sharing a popcorn should we just get a large one?”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. Pidge made a noise of agreement too and they migrated their way over to the counter. The teenager who took the order seemed so tired and probably had been there all day. Lance felt a bit bad for them but also felt like every place he went too hard a tired teenager working somewhere.

“I heard that the movie doesn’t have any jump scares,” Pidge commented.

“That’s literally the only reason why I agreed to see this movie. If there were jump scares I don’t think I would be able to make it,” Hunk placed his hand on his chest, as if pretending to be faint. They were following Keith to their seats since it was the type of theater where you had to reserve seating ahead of time.

Once they were all settled in it was a pretty standard time at the theater.

Except Lance didn’t really remember much of the movie. He would be able to recall Keith’s reactions if someone asked. It wasn’t like he was staring at him the entire movie but he did look over at him for a good amount of it. Lance felt that he couldn’t be blamed for staring at Keith then. Not when the light illuminated his face nicely, or whenever something concerning happening to a character on screen and his brows would furrow just a bit.

Hunk was on Lance’s other side and the half of the movie Lance was distracted by him rather than Keith. Hunk had a small grip on Lance’s arm, and every now and then the two of them would lean over to each other and whisper small jokes. Like when the hideous monster of the movie appeared on screen, Hunk leaned over and whispered, “Lance, that’s you.”

To which Lance responded part way when another monster came on with, “Hunk oh my god I didn’t know you were in a movie.”

Pidge would just give them dirty looks every time they leaned over to whisper.

Keith didn’t seem to care, or if he did he didn’t show anything. Lance could feel him being interested though. It was subtle, small.

Lance always felt like he was being invasive whenever he read his friend's feelings. Keith’s especially. Keith seemed to be more subtle than the rest, the most he had ever gotten from him was from the night of the first Galra attack. All other times, Keith reminded Lance of a wave pool. His feelings were calm, predictable, and not suffocating. It was nice.

The movie ended quickly. Lance blamed it on the fact that he hardly paid any attention to it.

“Where should we go next?” Hunk asked them as they left the movie theater. The temperature had dropped since then and Lance saw that it had begun to snow. It was a light snow, the first snow of the year (early too, since it was just late October and the school hadn’t even had it’s homecoming yet).

“Inside,” Keith said, crossing his arms over himself.

“I thought you wouldn’t get cold easily,” Lance raised a brow at Keith.

“I don’t. I just don’t like the snow,” Keith answered. Some snowflakes had already gotten caught in his eyelashes. They melted quickly but when they were there, Lance couldn’t help but stare again. Keith caught him again, meeting his eyes. “What?”

“Do you want to go to Hot Topic?” Lance asked him, a teasing smile curling at the ends of his mouth.

“Oh my god,” Keith sighed, but he smiled too.

“I’m pretty sure they have My Chemical Romance merch still if you want to check it out, Keith,” Pidge joined in.

“Hot Topic is so small. Like, why don’t they build it bigger? It’s so popular that you think at this point it would automatically be bigger,” Hunk mimicked the dimensions with his hands as they walked inside of the mall.

“I don’t understand why they made the movie theater separate from the mall. Building planners don’t think logically,” Lance replied.

“I think this mall has a pretty big Hot Topic compared to other ones I’ve been too,” Pidge hummed.

“Do you shop at Hot Topic often?” Hunk asked Pidge.

“Only when I’m getting a gift for Keith.”

“I don’t shop at Hot Topic,” Keith mumbled.

“Speaking of gifts,” Lance interrupted, “Actually. I don’t think the helmets are considered gifts. But Pidge, can my helmet please have cat ears. And it needs to be blue.” Lance was joking about the cat ears.

Pidge blinked at Lance, “Why cat ears? Are you a furry?”

“Y’know,” Lance paused, raising his hand to his face and curling it a bit, “Like nya.”

Pidge walked away from him and Lance laughed loudly. “Pidge! Wait for us. You’ll get lost! You’re too short to be by yourself!” He called after her. They ignored him, flipping him off over their shoulder before stopping and taking a sharp right into a candy store. Naturally, they all found themselves following Pidge.

Lance couldn’t remember the last time he felt like a normal teenager. He was pretty sure it had been a long time for Hunk, Pidge, and Keith since they last felt _normal_. A part of him felt guilty for being in a mall instead of doing superhero things like training or researching the Galra.

At the same time, it felt nice to just relax and be an idiot in a candy store at a mall with his friends. Like a normal teenager (also, Lance really enjoyed seeing Keith try to ignore his sweet tooth while Pidge encouraged him to indulge in it).

"Should I buy this?" Lance asked Hunk as he stared down a jacket.

"Don't you already have one that looks just like that?" Hunk replied. Lance hummed as considered it, placing his hand on his chin. 

"I do but it's a good color on me," he turned and looked at Hunk who just shrugged. Keith was standing idly behind him, casually thumbing through clothes that didn't seem to actually interest him.

"That's true," Hunk agreed and Lance gave him a wide smile. Pidge was on their phone, texting Matt about something. Every now and then Lance would remind them about his helmet (he was, of course, still joking about the cat ears and Pidge suggested to give him a tail at one point also as a joke).

Keith had migrated over to the two of them, he didn't say anything as if he was unsure about interrupting the two of them or interacting with them. Most of the experience at the mall seemed to be like that. Although they definitely all got along together, this was the first time that they were all hanging out as a group together. The shift in the relationship was noticeable since they were all getting used to each other. Lance didn't mind any of the awkwardness, he never did have much of an issue with those types of dynamics.

They were all sitting down near an Auntie Annie's when all of their phones began to buzz at once. Lance didn't even get the chance to look at it before Keith was standing it. Pidge and Hunk followed suit and he did too, trying to move as fast as them. Lance didn't even bother trying to learn why Allura needed all of them. 

He didn't even mourn losing the normalcy for a day, just getting all of them in his car again and heading towards Voltron as fast as he possibly could.


	10. Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is unbeta'd (other than grammarly yelling at me)

All of them rushed to the car as fast they were able. Pidge had taken their pretzel bites with them. She shoved a good portion inside of her mouth, the rest of the Auntie Anne's pretzels remaining in the small box that they came in. Lance was quick to start the car up, pulling out of the mall parking lot before he was even able to put on his seatbelt. Hunk was struggling to get his on, and Keith had figured that it wasn't worth the fight.    
  
Pidge dug around her in her pockets, pulling out a small piece of technology that was no bigger than a hearing aid. "That looks like a Bluetooth headphone," Keith furrowed his brows at Pidge as she placed it in her ear. Keith was sitting behind Lance, and Pidge on the passenger side next to him in the back.   
  
"It is. It's just modified to pick up frequencies, Matt and I were working on them to have communication devices, even without the helmets, just temporary until all of the kinks are worked out of those," Pidge explained offhandedly. She pressed a small button on the side of it. "I only have two pairs on me, so enough for all of us to stay connected. Matt has the others," Pidge hadn't mentioned this to Keith before. He doubted she mentioned them to anyone but Allura and Coran, Pidge sometimes hid projects in an effort for them to be a surprise. He figured that she should have told them something like this; a useful piece of technology was important.   
  
"Here," Pidge handed him one, giving the other two to Hunk and Lance. Lance had to be quick to put his in since he was weaving through cars on the highway at a speed that would definitely have them pulled over. Keith wouldn't care if they were pulled over, there were more important things happening than them worrying about the speed limit.   
  
When Keith turned on the small device it beeped at him, a feminine robotic voice telling him the number he had before telling him that he was connected to the rest. "Allura, are you online?" Pidge furrowed their brows, waiting for a response.   
  
There was some static, and then Allura's voice came through, _ "All of us at the base are online. Shiro is already on the scene, what's your current location?"  _ Her voice was choppy but it was still audible.   
  
"We're just about to come off of CO-42 and get onto 95th ST, should we head to Voltron or head straight onto the scene?" Lance piped up, glancing over his shoulder as he merged. A car honked at them, Pidge flipped them off.   
__  
_ "Lance, go towards the base. The situation is occurring towards I-75. A bomb was set off in a local restaurant off the highway near the edge of the city. Currently, there is an attack, it appears the Galra have joined together and are attempting to gain control in the area. Their attack is spreading into the small town that's nearby." _   
  
"Shouldn't we go straight to the scene? Over," Keith had everything that he needed to help out there. He didn't understand Allura's hestiance and need for them to connect.   
  
_ "No, unless I'm incorrect in my assumption that the majority of you are defenseless."  _   
  
"No, you're correct in that assumption," Hunk informed her.   
  
"ETA ten minutes, possibly faster," Lance told everyone in the car and Allura as well. "Over." He added it as an afterthought.    
  
__ "When you get here, we expect you all to get ready as soon as possible. Lance, you don't have, due to your lack of a proper secret identity you'll be sticking with me on damage control, we'll make due with that Matt has already built for you, over," Coran's voice was a bit scratchy and more inaudible than Allura's, but still easily understood.    
  
"Understood, over," Keith saw Lance grip the steering wheel tighter. Hunk was taking deep breaths in the front seat, gripping onto the handle as Lance took a particularly sharp and dangerous turn. "ETA now five minutes, over," Lance was speeding through the city now. Cop cars passed them but none of them made move to pull them over. Keith expected that most, if not all units, were heading towards the Galra attack. Shiro hadn't come online and Keith wondered how he was holding up, being the only superhero on the scene.   
  
They pulled into the Voltron parking lot and came to a screeching halt that had them all moving forward in their seat. None of them wasted any time getting out of the car. They ran into the building, Hunk and Pidge heading to grab their suits and Keith rushing to get his on. Lance followed Pidge and Hunk, Pidge having taken his hand and tugging him along.   
  
In no time they were all in Allura's office. 

  
"Keith, you'll assist Shiro. Hunk and Pidge, rescue civilians from any destruction. Take out anyone, you two are the best at capturing so take any prisoners if possible. Lance, as stated before, you'll be with Coran helping with civilians and getting them to a safe place. You can keep them calm so the hysteria doesn't put them in jeopardy if necessary," Allura told them the plan. 

She gave them the coordinates, "You'll be needing these," she tossed them all key, except for Pidge who seemed disappointed. "Photosynth," Allura looked at Pidge, using codenames now, "You can ride on the back of Malosi’s bike,” she said it in a tone that left no room for argument. Not that they had time for that anyway.

Keith just took his keys, “Where are they parked?” 

“First level garage. Mustacho can you show you the way there,” Allura looked at Coran who was dressed like an ‘80s anime character of a superhero. 

“Let’s go!” Coran was already speeding ahead of all of them, they all turned around and followed his bright orange cape. He had led them to three motorcycles, Keith wasted no time getting onto the red one and starting it up. 

“I don’t know how to ride this,” Keith heard Lance say before he took off.

Keith sped through the city streets, soon hearing two other bikes behind him. When he glanced over he saw Pidge riding behind Hunk, the cowl of their cape off of their head as the actual cape billowed in the wind. Coran and Lance caught up to Keith too, Lance holding onto Coran who seemed to be having too much fun with the bike despite the current circumstances. 

As they got closer, Keith could hear the sounds of sirens getting louder and louder. He all but skidded to a stop, leaving his bike next to a cop car. There were news crews already there as they all rushed onto the scene, a detective was making sure that they stayed back. Their interests were piqued by the team's arrival.

Keith ignored them, getting into the thick of it. He could already see a few people who were causing havoc. Pidge and Hunk were quick to apprehend them, Pidge using their vines to their advantage in this situation. Coran and Lance were off, no doubt doing sweeps of buildings for anyone who was hiding. 

He pressed the small earbud in his ear, “Paladin. Paladin, do you copy? This is Firestarter, I’ve arrived on the scene, over.”

_ “This is Paladin. I copy but I’m a bit busy right now, over, _ ” Keith could hear grunting from Shiro’s side of things. 

_ “Firestarter — “  _

There was a foot in his back and Keith stumbled, not hearing the rest of the message.

He caught himself and looked around quickly, his fists up to defend himself from any other blows.

There wasn't anyone near him. He furrowed his brows and still didn't let down his guard.

A sudden breeze was in front of his face and Keith backed up as quickly as he could, still keeping his fists up towards his face. They managed to hit his elbow.

There was no telling where his attacker was, or where they would strike next. 

Keith looked at the ground, trying to see if he could find some sort of sign that they were moving around but they stood on the street. A harsh kick was landed on his stomach and keith grabbed the person’s leg quickly and instinctively. 

He held them by their ankle, feeling a bit winded from the kick.

The person struggle in his grasp. “Show yourself!” Keith yanked them towards himself.

A figure materialized in front of him. Her face was covered but she pulled her foot away from Keith roughly, “Let go of me!” It slipped from his hands but Keith moved quickly, curling his hand into a fist before she became invisible again. He landed a blow at her ribs that made her stumble back.

 

Keith followed after her, preparing to strike again. He aimed towards her jaw, but she caught his wrist. Keith prepared to use his left arm, moving in an upward trajectory. 

She increased the pressure on his wrist, jumping quickly. Somehow she had twirled herself, her legs coming around his neck. Her applied pressure to the back of his head, the other bent at the knee, her foot resting on his shoulder. She dragged him down, making Keith roll forward. He landed on his back, a sharp pain running along his back from the impact.

Her legs were still underneath him and Keith turned around, grabbing at her ankles again. She kicked him in the face, causing Keith’s head to shoot back and for him to let go of her ankle. His nose throbbed.

“I thought you would’ve been a better fighter than this, it’s a lot more boring than what they said it’ll be like. Where’s that pretty fire of yours?” She taunted him, turning invisible again.

Keith rolled to his feet, ignoring the dripping coming from his nose. He stiffened up, trying to detect her presence. There was a breeze near his midsection and Keith blocked the fist, bringing his arm down to protect himself. 

Keith lurched forward, attempting to strike a blow towards her head. It seemed to have landed and she became visible for a brief moment.

He used this to his advantage, Keith slid to the right, opposite of how the girl was circling him. She rushed at him, still visible. “You’re pretty light on your feet, aren’t you? Come on! Show me how you  _ really  _ fight!” 

The girl threw a hit with her left hand, tried to hook Keith’s left leg with his own, trying to throw him to the ground. Keith turned forward and to his right, slapping his left hand against the middle of his opponent’s back as he slid past. The blow caught his opponent between her shoulder blades. Her body lurched forward when he struck her and Keith moved away from her before she could relitate. He allowed his fists to become light up with flames, enough to warn her away.

“Hot,” the girl smirked at him, “I don’t mind getting burned,” despite the flames surrounding his fist she lunged forward.

The two of them picked up their dance again. She turned around, once again rushing at him. She aimed blows at him in a quick succession, her fists flying. Keith blocked what he could, avoiding one flying fist only to be connected to another. The blow glanced off of his ribcage, the pain fading fast.

In front of him, the girl grinned and jabbed again at his midsection.

Keith focused on blocking her, shoving her away. She hissed at the fire that threatened to lick her and Keith automatically turned himself off.

Again, she used her legs. A high kick coming for his right side. Keith rolled away, standing quickly and grabbing her by her shoulders. Her arms came up, pushing at him to get him off. Keith turned around, stepping away quickly as he pulled her with him. He grabbed her arm, pulling her up and rolling her off of him. She flew off of his body, slapping against the floor.

The wind was knocked out of her and she glared up at him, Keith held a hand around her neck. He didn’t apply much pressure, holding her there so she couldn’t get up easily.

“I don’t have time for you. Where’s the rest of your team? What are you planning?”

The girl glared up at him, her eyes furrowing underneath her mask. 

“Ghost!” Another feminine voice rang out, Keith looked up, seeing another Galra member running towards them.

The distraction allowed Ghost to move. She kicked her legs up, pushing at Keith’s chest and effectively getting him off of her.

The new arrival had a gun attached to her person that she pulled out when she saw Keith. Ghost grinned, it was less sharp than before. “Viper!” She greeted the other villain, as if they weren’t in the middle of a fight.

Viper kept the gun pointed at Keith. Keith knew that he wasn’t like Hunk, or even Shiro, where a bullet would heavily affect him and his ability to fight. Ghost disappeared.

Keith stared at Viper, before rushing in head first. He grabbed the hand holding the gun, causing it to shoot in the air as the two of them wrestled. Viper managed to free her left arm, elbowing Keith. Keith hissed in pain, going for a cheap low and stepping on her toes. He hit the weapon out of her hands, yet the two of them remained locked in their power struggle.

A pair of hands pulled him off of her and keith whipped around to hit Ghost, aiming up. His fist connected with the bottom of her jaw, meeting their target and forcing Ghost to become visible again.

He was outnumbered. Viper went to grab her gun again and Keith ignored Ghost, running towards the other Galra. Viper seemed to know his intentions, and Ghost was grabbing the back of his collar. Keith shook her off, his jacket going with her.

Viper reached the gun before Keith did, and Keith allowed for his arms to take flame. 

“So scary!” Ghost’s voice appeared from somewhere in front of him, teasing, she had discarded his jacket. She became visible in front of him, standing next to Viper. 

“Ghost, we have to go,” Viper told her partner, Ghost nodded and disappeared again. Viper turned on her heel and ran, the gun going back to her hip. Keith followed after her, running full speed ahead. 

Viper scaled up a building’s fire escape, and Keith made to follow.

_ “Fire Starter!” _ Shiro’s voice sounded sharp in his ear,  _ “How are you holding up?” _

“Lost track of one, chasing another,” Keith answered, panting a bit as he still chased after Viper. She was a lot faster than Ghost had been, but Keith was almost able to grab her now. Viper jumped across a building with minimal effort, going down it and turning a corner sharply. It put some distance between the two of them but he still followed.

Shiro didn’t answer, but Keith heard a curse from the communicator.

_ “All civillains are safe and accounted for,”  _ Coran was the one who spoke this time.

Keith kept himself focused on following Viper. He turned the same corner, seeing her in the distance. Keith sprinted, turning around a building and up the street. He turned again, running to intercept Viper who looked for a way out.

There was a roar of a bike, it sped out in front of him without a driver. Viper hopped on, and Ghost became visible for a moment. She winked at him before the two sped off. Keith attempted to give chase, following them as far as he could. 

The taste of copper was in his mouth, his lungs ached and eventually, the bike got too far away for him to follow. “Fuck!” He cursed, pressing his fingers to his ear, “I lost both of the Galra. They sped away too fast for me to follow.”

_ “They seemed to be pulling out. A few just disappeared on us over here, too,”  _ Pidge informed them all.

_ “Same with me, _ ” Shiro was back now.  _ “Fan out and make sure that there isn’t anyone left.”  _ Keith could hear the frustration in his voice.  _ “Where are your current locations?” _

Keith looked around, “Corner of Grand and Gay, west, I’m facing the mountains.” The others reported their location to Shiro.

_ “Keith, check out the west. Pidge, work on the south, and Hunk you get the east. I’m looking north, meet up at the rendezvous point, _ ” Shiro instructed them.

Keith confirmed that he would look over the western side. He didn’t find any sign of living life, the town was small enough that whatever evacuation that had happened had happened quickly. He returned back to the spot of the fight, finding his jacket and shrugging it back on. Keith continued to survey the area, spotting nothing that seemed odd or malevolent. 

He felt frustrated that he had let those two members escape, if he hadn’t then they could have gotten information out of them.  He lifted his hand, meaning to contact the rest that there wasn't any sight of the Galra that had escaped. He turned to head towards the meeting point. Something reflected in the sun, catching his eye. Keith went over, investigating the item. It was a small drive and he picked it up carefully.

“This area is clear of any Galra, I found a flashdrive. I’m heading to the meet point,” Keith informed the others.

_ “I’ll check it over when we get back to Voltron,”  _ Pidge told them.

Keith found his way to the meet up spot. Hunk was already there with Shiro, Pidge was last to join them. He handed Pidge the drive, they inspected it, turning it over in her hand. “It’s probably another message from the Galra,” Pidge scrunched her nose. 

“We’ll hear what they have to say later,” Shiro crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ll also have a full debrief once we get back,” he led them over to where there was a line of yellow tape. Lance and Coran were approaching them, Coran saying something to Lance that made Lance frown. Lance still nodded to whatever Coran said, causing Coran to clap him on the shoulder.

As a team, they approached the cops, Detective Kolivan making his way over to them. There was a horde of news reporters lined up, shock teams were also all over the place. Most of the townsfolk seemed okay, which was relieving, and Keith pulled his attention to the detective.

Lance and Coran had joined them, and when he glanced at Lance his shoulders were drooping a bit. Lance caught his eye and immediately brightened up, grinning at him. Keith looked away quickly, still feeling frustrated from the fight. His bruises were beginning to throb.

“Hey, Fire Starter,” Lance was addressing him now, making Keith give him his attention again. “You have a lot of blood on your face,” he pointed at his own nose. 

“It’s broken,” he deadpanned, wiping at his nose anyway. Blood streaked his glove. Lance winced but didn’t say anything else.

Keith focused on Kolivan, the detective was staring at the team intently. Shiro spoke first.

“Fire Starter found a hard drive, there are no sightings of any remaining Galra. Were any civilians harmed?” He asked Kolivan, glancing over to where the shock units and ambulances were.

“A few, not as many as you would expected. I’m beginning to think that they’re just playing around with us,” Kolivan frowned, looking as frustrated as Keith felt. The expression was gone from his face rather quickly. 

“Most of them seem to be shocked, they should be okay,” Coran informed. Lance and Coran had managed to move people out quickly and effectively.

Kolivan nodded his head. “We’ll talk more at Voltron, investigate that flash drive and see if there’s anything else we can add to our files on the Galra,” Kolivan dismissed the small team. 

They headed towards their bikes, Keith wanting to take a shower to get rid of the sticky quality of his skin.

Keith couldn’t breathe too well through his nose, forced to breathe through his mouth. There was sweat caked onto his skin, along with ash. His nose was still bleeding, it was bruised. His body was beginning to ache. There were bruises appearing on his skin already. The news casters were rushing around all of them. Hunk seemed uncomfortable underneath all of the pressure, attempting to get closer to Lance as if to hide himself, Lance gave the cameras a wide, charming smile.

Despite his incomplete costume, Lance still seemed to be shiny enough to the newcasters. 

Their attention taken off of Hunk and immediately focused onto Lance, asking him question after question about who he was and what his status was with Voltron. “What’s your name? How do you feel about your first break out onto the scene? Are you an official member of Voltron? What’s your ID number? Are you a registered hero? How does it feel to be fighting with such legends like Mustacho and Paladin,” one asked Lance, shoving the mic into his face.

Lance opened his mouth to answer but Coran butted in first, probably for the better. “Pathos is the newest member of Voltron. Please, don’t surround him, any and all questions can be answered later,” he placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder and pulled him away a little bit. Keith watched before a microphone was shoved into his face.

“Fire Starter, we haven’t heard much from you. How do you feel about the recent attacks involving the Galra? Do you believe that Voltron has the manpower and the strength to defend this city? We all know that Voltron has had a serious reduction in its size in the recent decades,” the newsman asked him. The camera moved closer to Keith’s face. 

“Voltron will get rid of the threat and make sure that the city of Altea can feel secure,” was all Keith said. He was pressured to say more, the mics being shoved in his face along with the cameras, to say more but Shiro jumped in, addressing everyone with a camera and microphone.

“Our goal is to defend this city and everyone in it. To ensure that the Galra’s influence doesn’t spread further and that no one else can be harmed by their actions. As Firestarter stated, Voltron will make Altea feel safe again. We are more than capable in our power. For now, use precaution. If you see anything suspicious, let us know. We’re increasing our patrols around Altea, and we won’t rest until this threat has passed us. Rest assured, Altea. Voltron is here and we won’t let you down,” Shiro promised.

Shouts of questions came from the crowd as each newscaster tried to push their way to get more information. Keith didn’t want to deal with the crowd, not willing to preen and shine for the news reporters. 

Coran and Shiro attempt to get rid of the crowd with some help from the officers, who just wanted to get everyone away so that things could return to how they were. 

“Head back to base,” Shiro instructed the five of them, “Coran and I are going to handle things over here. We’ll meet you back there.”

Coran whispered something to Lance, who nodded and waved his hand nonchalantly. Coran frowned a little bit but allowed whatever it was Lance was going to do to happen. Keith figured that whatever it was wasn’t his business. While he was curious, and a bit concerned that whatever had Coran frowning was something that could be harmful, he thought it was best not to pry what was going on. It was probably about Lance’s power training or something else along those lines.

It wasn’t any of his concern. He told himself that, he wasn’t the nosey type anyway.

Keith jumped onto his bike, heading back to Voltron. The other four followed.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

“Sit still,” Allura chastised Keith. “We’ve been through this before,” she brought her hands up to his nose, “Take a deep breath.” She instructed him.

As Keith did what was told of him, Allura set his nose back. Pain flared up and he hissed, but she dropped her hands and nodded, satisfied. “Here,” she handed him an ice back and pain killers for the swelling. Keith took the pain killers gratefully, gently applying the ice pack to his nose. 

“You should go and clean your face off,” Allura waved him away, going to attend to any other injuries the others had. Pidge was really the only other who was hurt, seeing as Hunk was essentially impentratible and Lance hadn’t fought. All of their masks had come off, and Pidge was being held on to by their cape by Hunk to ensure they didn’t go off and explore the flash drive before being helped.

Keith stood up, ignoring the ache and heading to the closest bathroom. He frowned at how he looked in the mirror. There was a dark, mottled bruise already appearing on his jaw, not to mention all of the other places that he had been hit, and it took several (gentle) washes of water to get the dried blood off of his face. He was sure that if he took off his shirt and inspected his back it would be covered in similar bruising.

He never wanted to fight anyone who could turn invisible again.

The bathroom door opened and he turned, seeing Lance. Lance looked… haggard. He hadn’t changed out of his half-made costume yet. His shoulders were sagging, his face was pale, and Keith was pretty sure that he had never seen that expression on his face before. Lance’s eyes caught his.

“Wow, you bruise easily,” his voice was softer than usual as if he was wary of his own volume.

“Yeah,” Keith dumbly replied, “You look… terrible.” He was great at words.

Lance gave him a smile anyway, “You two, buddy.” He gently clapped Keith on the shoulder, and Keith left the bathroom before he stared even more at Lance.

Keith rejoined the others. They had migrated over to Matt’s workshop, Pidge and her brother already analyzing the drive. Allura was pacing back and forth, her arms crossed over her chest and her brows furrowed.

Shiro and Coran returned, already knowing where to go. Coran’s eyes scanned the room while Shiro took off his helmet, heading towards Matt and dropping a kiss to the top of his head.

“Is here another message on there?” Shiro asked, essentially draping himself on top of Matt who leaned into any touch that Shiro gave.

“Right now it’s just a bunch of code,” Pidge answered.

“Why wouldn’t they send us a video like last time?” Allura looked over at where the information stored in the drive was pulled up. 

Matt shifted forward, looking at the information a bit closer. He went silent, not answering. After a moment, he looked back at Allura, taking off his glasses and cleaning them before putting them back on. “It seems like it’s some sort of manifesto and threat mixed in together, it’s going to take me awhile to get all of this sorted out. Whoever made this made sure that it was difficult to understand,” Matt looked back at the mess of numbers and symbols that would never make sense to him.

“How long do you believe it’ll take you?” Allura asked him.

Matt glanced over at him, “A few hours. Maybe a day, if it’s that complicated.” He gave her the estimate. 

Keith turned his head when he heard the door open again, Lance coming in and standing by Hunk who was looking at the code over Pidge’s shoulder now. He backed away from those who crowded the screen, instead electing to lean against a wall.

“We have no idea when the Galra will strike again. This may have critical information that we can use,” Allura ran a hand through her hair, “Do you think you can get through it faster?”

Matt frowned, “I can try but it’s incredibly complex.”

“We need  _ something  _ that can help us,” Allura sighed, her frustration almost palpable. 

“Well,” Pidge piped up, “We do know that they seem to be growing. Which isn’t a positive thing, but it lets us know that they have some sort of outreach and support system. Meaning that there has to be an underground system of information that they use. When Hunk and I were fighting, one of the members something about a newbie.”

“They seem to be trying to get specific in their fights too. One that we were up against mentioned that she wanted to take out their muscle,” Hunk informed Allura.

Keith tilted his head, “I fought one of their members, she was called Ghost. Another came and assisted her named Viper. Ghost mentioned something along the lines of them telling her that fighting me would be… interesting.”

“Do you know the abilities of those two?” Pidge asked, “They won’t be registered underneath those names but we can start to narrow down who they might be if they’ve been registered in the system at all.”

“Ghost could turn invisible, she didn’t seem to have a good hold on it since every time she was caught off guard or I landed a strike she became visible again, it seemed like she had a waiting period too. Viper didn’t show her abilities, she did have a gun, but she didn’t get the chance to use it,” Keith told Pidge, who typed quickly on their keyboard. Matt was too absorbed in decoding to do it.

“We already know that one of them has super strength, while another seems to be connected to some sort of cat,” Shiro looked at what Pidge was typing now.

“Does anyone know who’s leading the Galra now? Didn’t Zarkon, like, die back when they were originally disbanded?” Lance brought up. “Did he have some sort of right-hand man?”

Allura stood up straight, moving away from Pidge’s screen. “The only one I’m aware of was Haggar, however, she disappeared when the Galra did.” She looked over at Coran.

Coran tilted his head back, thinking. “Haggar was incredibly close to Zarkon, but she wasn’t anything more than an assistant to him. She didn’t seem to want to take power, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was pulling strings in the background. Her secret identity is still unknown, she would be around my age now if she’s alive. It wouldn’t be surprising if she’s involved.”

“Pidge, check for any tracings of Haggar’s abilities,” Allura instructed. Pidge nodded, not responding.

“Detective Kolivan told us to pass on any information we have or find out to the station,” Shiro pulled himself away from Matt to look at Allura.

She made a noise of affirmation, “As soon as we figure out what the message means we’ll send it along to them. For now, I’ll share with them what we learned and what we’re attempting to put together.” 

“I’ll start organizing what we learned,” Coran placed a hand on her shoulder. The touch was gentle, almost paternal. “We’re already making progress faster than we thought we would,” he sounded like he was speaking to her alone. Allura nodded sharply, not shrugging him off.

“Hunk, help Pidge and Matt out however you can. Keith, Lance, double your training, we need everyone we can on the field,” Allura instructed, Shiro’s eyes glanced quickly at Matt, whose eyes had glazed over and reflected the code on the screen. The look was gone as soon as it was put there, Keith only detecting it because he knew.

“Is there anything you need from us right now?” Keith asked Allura, not wanting to sit still and be useless.

“Hone your own abilities more, you’re one of our strongest fighters and we need you to be prepared to use your powers on the field for more than just intimidation,” Allura didn’t even need to be told that Keith hadn’t attempted to burn anyone. “Practicing restraint is important, but we may need you to use them in the future,” harming people wasn’t on their list, yet it could still be necessary.

Keith knew that he just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of burning someone. He just nodded his head though.

“Lance, go rest,” Coran was the one to instruct this time. Keith looked over to where Lance was leaning against the wall, his head was tilted back and he seemed uncomfortable. Lance didn’t put up a fight with the instruction, just leaving the room.

Allura and Coran headed off, talking among themselves as they planned what they could. Everyone else was busy and Keith left, going to do what he had been told to, even if he didn’t necessarily want to. 

For a moment, he was less concerned about the Galra and more about the paleness of Lance’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey im alive! again  
> hopefully, things are going to be easier for me to write and produce since its summer now, and i started medication and i'm doing pretty great!!  
> also i hate fight scenes, but I suffer for your pleasure (and i accidentally made them located in colorado on the more north side since that's where i live and the only highways i know about instinctively)
> 
> come talk to me!  
> trans-riot.tumblr.com  
> electricpurity on instagram


	11. Lance

Lance was  _ exhausted _ . Exhausted in a way he had never felt before. He didn't even know that exhaustion could come from this. But he was  _ exhausted  _ and he had the worst headache in the world. It was a migraine, he was sure of it.

That day he didn't even bother to say anything to anyone before he left. Well, he had told Coran and Allura but that was more out of requirement than anything. Not that he had really needed to talk to them, he had basically been dismissed from the meeting already.

The hallways were incredibly bright, making him wince. Lance wanted to go home but the ache behind his eyes just pushed him into the closet dark room. He leaned against the wall there, finding that uncomfortable. Eventually he just sort of laid curled on the floor.

Moving hurt to do. Lance had only gotten a migraine once when he was younger. He had ended up inside a dark bedroom with an ice pack over his eyes and a cup of coffee next to him. Lance burrowed himself, making himself into a small ball. As small as he could any. His phone buzzed and he whined, grabbing it from his back pocket and reading the message.

Hunk was asking him where he was. Lance answered back his best guest before telling Hunk some of what he felt.

Then he tossed his phone away, not wanting to look at his screen. It just strained his eyes and made the pain worse. He took a deep breath, trying to will himself to relax so the pain could go away. 

Lance wasn’t sure how long he had been laying there for. The door slid open and he could see some light. He buried his face in his arms to avoid the sting. “Lance?: Hunk’s voice was soft, his hand touched his face. “Jesus, you’re burning up. Come on, let me take you home dude,” Hunk closed the door behind him and helped Lance sit up. Lance opened his eyes up just a bit but shut them again, not wanting to strain himself with trying to make sense of shapes in the dark.

Typically, Lance was pretty sure he would have put up a fight rather than let himself be babied. But for right now he groaned and slumped into his best friend’s arms. He finally opened his eyes, not able to see much other than dark shapes and Hunk’s yellow aura. 

“Do you think you can walk?” Hunk’s voice was still very soft and gentle. “Jesus, Lance you’re burning up,” his hands touched Lance’s face in concern.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” Lance stood slowly with Hunk’s help. He was shaky on his legs and Hunk placed his hand on him, keeping Lance steady. 

“We’re going to have to take my car, is that okay?” Hunk asked, letting Lance lean his entire body onto him once they stepped outside. The lights burned his eyes and Lance wished he could get away with walking around with his eyes closed. Walking was actually really difficult, but he didn’t want to be carried out like a maiden either. 

“It’s fine. I’ll just… come back tomorrow for my car,” he waved his hands as he talked but they barely rose past where they naturally fell. Lance was barely aware of the fact that he was basically fully supported by Hunk. His head was pounding and he slithered pathetically into the back of Hunk’s jeep. He curled up back there.

“I’ll take the turns easy,” Lance could barely hear Hunk. It was dark outside thankfully and Lance just stayed where he was laying, propping his head on his arm, trying to alleviate some of the pressure behind his eyes. Lance felt nauseous. 

Hunk began driving and it felt like he was going slower than usual. 

Time blurred together and Hunk was poking his face gently. “Lance, hey, bud, we’re at your house,” Hunk’s voice still remained soft. Lance didn’t open his eyes. He could see Hunk. Not literally. His eyes we, in fact, close but he could  _ see _ Hunk. Lance opened his eyes just a little bit, looking at his best friend.

“Okay,” he said it very quietly, getting out of the back of the car. Lance walked, feeling like he was on thin ice the entire time. Hunk helped him get up to the front door. “Thanks, dude,” Lance leaned against the front door, his entire body weight on it now.

“Of course. Feel better, okay?” Hunk told him and Lance just nodded before slipping into his house. He didn’t waste any time, just slinking his way to his bedroom downstairs. Lance then went to his bathroom, once again, he curled up on the bathtub floor. The water just hit him. Lance didn’t keep track of how long he was in the shower. As soon as he was out he did chug painkillers. 

He didn’t waste any time getting into his bed. Glaring at his phone, Lance searched until he found a playlist of just thunderstorm noises. He put it on, making it so it was distant and quiet. 

  
  
  


Lance woke up late the next day. His mouth tasted disgusting but he ignored it in favor of grabbing his covers and turning onto his side. Lance could hear his family move around upstairs. Someone was heading towards the basement door. He just tried to go back to sleep, ignoring the presence of his sister in his room.

“Lance?” Veronica was keeping her voice relatively quiet. “Hey, Lance,” she spoke up now, trying to rouse him.

Lance groaned, rolling over towards her. He opened his eyes. “What.” He still felt terrible, the pain wasn’t behind his head anymore.

“Mom was wondering when you were going to get out of bed,” Veronica didn’t care for the tone in his voice. She looked him over, “You’re pale as shit. You feeling okay?” She reached forward and touched him. Lance squirmed away. “Dude, I just want to see if you have a fever,” she reached towards him again.

“Don’t touch me,” Lance snipped, he caught himself. “I’m sick. I don’t want to get you sick too,” he told her, not wanting to cause her further concern. Veronica frowned at him, placing a hand on her hip as she examined him. Lance curled up more into his sheets, adding a cough for good measure.

“Fine, you brat,” Veronica rolled her eyes. “I’ll go tell mom you’re sick and that I’m the one cleaning the gutters. Again.” She headed towards the stairs again and Lance rolled his eyes, sitting up in bed slowly. 

“Did you want tea?” Veronica had started her ascent up the stairs. 

“That’ll be nice, thanks,” Lance nodded, his head very much still feeling heavy. He gave Veronica a small smile before she left his room. Lance let out a heavy sigh once she was gone, going to the bathroom and at least doing a few things of the normal morning routine.

Lance got back into bed, wondering if it would be worth it to go back to sleep. He checked his phone, sending a text to Hunk to let him know that he was still alive. It was early enough that he could get away with sleeping in. Veronica was in his room again, preventing that. Lance turned towards the stairs. She blinked at him when she saw him looking at her.

“Ears like a bat,” she mumbled, placing a steaming cup of tea near him. “Did you need anything else?” Veronica asked him. “Did you want a grilled cheese?”

Lance couldn’t imagine eating anything at all, so he shook his head. “No, I’m good with the tea. Thank you,” he smiled at her again. Veronica pushed up her glasses, giving him another once-over before nodding as if she was satisfied with what she saw.

“You’re welcome. Feel better, dork,” again she left his room. Lance looked at the cup of tea next to him and sighed, looking up at his ceiling. One of the glowing stars he had fell onto his forehead, and he let out another groan.

This was definitely the type of day where he just stayed inside. He grabbed a pillow that had fallen off of his bed and placed it atop his face. He closed his eyes and laid like that. Next, to him, his phone buzzed but he ignored it. Lance didn't want to be around other people, he wanted to have the bare minimum of human interaction that day. His phone buzzed again and he wondered if it was too much to ask for. Lance didn't want a repeat of yesterday, although he had to be honest in that what had happened was more of a side effect than anything.

That still didn't mean he couldn't recover. But everyone would be knocking down his house if he ignored them with no word as to why. Most of all, Lance would feel guilty for ignoring his friends. 

He pressed the pillow down more on his face and let out a heaving sigh. Grabbing his phone he scanned through the messages there. Hunk had responded to his signal of him being alive. There were messages in his swim teams group chat, a lot from Ezor, and random messages scattered throughout. Lance scrolled through his twitter feed before deciding to answer Ezor at least, he could get away with not responding to the swim team unless they @’d him.

**[Ezor]**

Lance! Did you hear about the craaaaaaazy fight that happened last night!?!?!

  
Lance wondered how she would react if she knew that he had been there. Even though he didn't do a lot of fighting...

**[Lonce]**

I saw some of the news abt it

Didnt watch a whole lot, it made me anxious yknow? Plus ive been feeling under the weather so i went to bed early

Its really cool that Paladin is actually out there again though!!! 

**[Ezor]**

I forgot about your crush on Paladin lol

Ngl I think Voltron is p lane right now, didn't seem to have much of a defense going on last night

lame** oops lol

**[Lonce]**

I think they did great

At least, what I've seen makes me think so

**[Ezor]**

Blegh thats boring propaganda 

  
  


Propaganda seemed worrying to Lance and he frowned, furrowing his brows. He began to type a response but Ezor was quicker.

**[Ezor]**

Still, they /did/ protect our city IG

Anyway!

I want a frosty and I'm going to dye my hair today

Wanna come over and help me out??? If you're not feeling good enough thats okay too, but you do owe me a chocolate frosty for letting me die of loneliness :p

**[Lonce]**

Thanks for the invite but i think ill just sit home dying of my own germs :(

Send pics when your hair is done!!!

**[Ezor]**

I defiantly will!

  
  


Lance felt a bit relieved that they returned to mundane subjects rather than the attack from yesterday. He had to take her comments as just someone who had watched it through the news, not someone who saw everything in real life. Ezor had only interacted with the Galra once, and Lance believed that that interaction was enough for her to think that there was a chink in Voltron’s armor.

He turned over onto his side, now hugging the pillow he had placed on top of his face. He scrolled through emails before finally deciding to respond to the group chat with Pidge, Hunk, and Keith in it.

**[Hunk]**

Did you guys see the Voltron building this morning???? Its CRAZY covered by reporters

**[Pidge]**

Matt’s beating them off with a broom right now, or was, now he’s sort of just pouting in his lab

He literally tried too to go outside with a BROOM

Allura stopped him

**[Keith]**

Is she still out there trying to talk to them with Coran and Shiro? 

**[Pidge]**

I think they have the situation handled now? There hasn't been any shouting from Allura at least so that's a win

**[Hunk]**

Yeah I'm watching the news right now, she’s all over the place

Does this count as an impromptu press report? Because it definitely seems like one

  
  


Lance left his messages to look at local news websites. Sure enough, Allura’s face, along with Shiro and Coran, were all there. All three of them were in costume, at least. Lance scrolled through the news sites, only to find that all of the media coverage went to the fight from yesterday and what was going on right now. There were a few wild speculation articles there, and a few about dogs or whatever else was going on in the world.

Lance clicked on an article titled, “The New Birth of Voltron and What That Means For Us.”

_ Most people today were just raided with the idea of Voltron. They only know what they read in textbooks, what they see on TV, the glamorization of Paladin, the mysterious current head of Voltron who just piqued their curiosities. However. many of us were raised with Voltron. We were there when Voltron first came onto the scene, we were there when Voltron was at it’s strongest. At that point in time, Voltron was viewed as the army. Growing up I found those who had the chance to use their abilities as something to help others admirable. Now I'm unsure. The Galra were hard to beat then, and clearly, it wasn't a success the first time around. There’s been a spike of children born with abilities, and we have already begun to worship those who work for Voltron. _

_ Paladin has been the front man for Voltron for years now. At no point before this last month did we need Paladin to come out of hiding. Sure, he came out and helped with minor crimes. Yet not until recently did we truly need someone like the Paladin. My question is; do we really need him? All I've seen about him seems to be admiring his physique, his voice, treating him more like a celebrity to put a pedestal on rather than a hero who is here to assist us. New heroes also seem to be making a debut, such as Fire Starter (fire as a power is dangerous, am I the only one weary of him?), and other background heroes that no one seems to know anything about (who are Photosynth, Malosi, and Pathos  _ really _?). Are any of them of use to us? Our children are stronger than we were, surely they can handle their own against the Galra. Other “important" members of Voltron include the ancient hero Mustacho, who we haven't seen since the ‘80s and the  _ apparent _ daughter of original Voltron founder who calls herself Lady White. These two have given us nothing but radio silence until recently. If they had been so worried for us, why did Voltron go into hiding? Barely anybody is employed by them anymore, as most superheroes are expired and the thing of the past. _

_ On top of all of this, the rise of the Galra has also begun. At the same time as Voltron becoming a major player again, the Galra are just as easily rebirthed. Although we haven't seen or heard much from the Galra — almost all of their attacks haven't been lethal and they're sparing in number — they only seem to pop up when Voltron needs them. Isn't it  _ odd  _ to anyone else that Voltron is back so soon despite being so weak? It’s as if they’re trying to cover the fact that they missed a good amount of the Galra before going underground. Galra supporters are bound to start appearing by the hundreds. Voltron isn't prepared to deal with the sheer number of citizens who don't want to be marked by the government because they're “special" or they have some sort of ability. We could very well be witnessing the beginning of a war that Voltron had already lost. _

Lance stopped reading at that point. He was tempted to send it to the group chat, tempted so that they could all tear it up but also because he wanted to talk about it. Talk about what people were undoubtedly thinking, and talk about how they were going to deal with all of this. The chat was buzzing with messages from Hunk and Pidge as they watched the impromptu press conference.

**[Hunk]**

I don't think Allura could get any more passive aggressive

**[Pidge]**

In her defense that reporter was being an ass, I'm surprised she didn't spark him 

**[Pidge]**

More important than Allura and the news is the fact that I got the door open

**[Hunk]**

You got it open!? How'd you do it?

**[Pidge]**

I used your idea on just straight up hot-wiring it so that it would open

I’m honestly surprised it worked

**[Hunk]**

Sometimes the easiest way to do something is the best way to do it

**[Pidge]**

I mean

You’re right

Anyway, I’m not going to open the door until we’re all here, Keith and Hunk at least

**[Hunk]**

I know I am

So @ **[Lance]** @ **[Keith]** are you guys coming down to see what’s in the room?

**[Lance]**

I don’t have my car

Also how would we get through the reporters?

**[Keith]**

I can pick you up Lance

It’s not hard to get past the reporters

  
  


**[Pidge]**

There’s a lot of secret ins and outs from back during the Voltron prime

**[Hunk]**

So we’ll see you two soon?

**[Lance]**

Yeah okay

I’ll DM you my address Keith

  
  


Lance sent his address to Keith, getting dressed as soon as he did. He washed his face so he looked less disgusting when he looked in the mirror he still looked pale and tired. Better than before but still pretty bad. Lance couldn’t put in the energy to do his full routine. Pulling on random clothes was bound to make him look like a walking disaster and he accepted it. His phone buzzed.

  
  


**[Flame-O]**

Here

  
  


Lance put his phone back, grabbing anything else he might need before heading up the stairs. He emerged from the basement, heading towards the door. Veronica was sitting in the living room and spotted him on his way out. 

“Where are you going?” She asked him, “I thought you didn’t feel well.”

Lance looked towards the door then back at his sister. “Um….” Lance shifted, “I still feel bad, yeah. But I left my car at Hunk’s place last night so I need to go get that. Hunk is here to pick me up.” It wasn’t a full lie.

Veronica narrowed her eyes at him. Lance always felt too vulnerable around her, he felt that she could see right through him. “Okay, are you good to drive? I can go with you?” Concern washed over him from Veronica, it made Lance feel a bit nauseous. He wasn’t even standing close to her.

“No, I’ll be fine,” he gave her a shaky smile that hopefully passed. 

Suspicion, still mainly concern, and some worry. “If you’re sure. I won’t be responsible though if you end up puking at the wheel,” Veronica returned to her textbook, snuggling into the blanket around her shoulders.

“Love you too,” Lance pulled on his shoes and left the house. His parents' car wasn’t there so he guessed that his mom and dad went to the farmers market as usual. He scanned for Keith’s car only to not see a car.

Keith was sitting on top of an actual motorcycle, not the Voltron issued one. He was holding a helmet underneath his arm, another helmet was sitting on his lap. Keith was straddling the motorcycle, his feet resting on the concrete as he balanced himself on the bike. The weird cropped jacket was switched out for an actual leather jacket. Lance was distracted by Keith being distracted. Specifically the curve of his neck and his jawline, and the way that his hair was slightly tousled.

Keith’s distraction didn’t last for long. He looked over at Lance, “Took you long enough.” 

Lance walked over to him, accepting the helmet that Keith gave him. “Sorry, my sister needed my attention… I thought you would bring a car? Is this even legal for you to drive?”

“Only if I get caught.”

For a brief second, Lance felt the pit drop in his stomach. But then he felt the amusement from Keith and glared at him. That too, hit him like a wave, thankfully he didn’t feel nauseous this time. “Shut up,” Lance rolled his eyes. 

Keith gave him a once over. “Will you be okay on this?” Lance tried to block out anything he was feeling from Keith when he felt concern. 

“I’ll be fine,” Lance put the helmet on. “Just take the turns easy, I’ve never been on a motorcycle before,” he had been on a moped before, but Lance was pretty sure it wasn’t the same. 

“Alright. Hold on tight then,” Keith started up the motorcycle and Lance carefully climbed onto the back. He hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist. Lance held them there loosely, trying not to hold on too tight. He was sort of hovering over Keith. “You might want to hold on tighter at first,” Keith suggested to him, speaking loudly over the motorcycle.

“Nope. This is good, let’s go before my sister comes out to see who you are,” Lance didn’t want to be hit with a wave of Keith’s emotions. Keith didn’t respond, just shrugging and starting to drive. 

Lance ended up holding on tighter when Keith just took off. “I don’t appreciate how smug you are about this!” Lance whispered to Keith, feeling a bit nauseous from both the movement of the bike and all of the things Keith was feeling. Lance just bit his lower lip and tried not to project anything onto Keith on accident. There wasn’t any skin on skin contact which made Lance react a little.

Keith seemed to be zipping through the streets and honestly, Lance wasn’t sure if he was going the speed limit. The turns were easy, he had to admit. Still, Lance didn’t appreciate the speed.

Keith got them to Voltron safely, managing to avoid any reporters that might be around. He went in through a back way that Lance didn’t even know existed. When they were parked, Lance got off first. His legs felt sort of wobbly from the vibrations of the bike and his own exhaustion. He handed back the helmet to Keith. 

Neither of them said anything as they walked through the halls. Eventually, Lance broke the silence. “How big is Voltron anyway? I didn’t know that that garage was there, and I’m sure there’s a lot that isn’t shown to the public,” he scratched the back of his neck.

“Pretty big. There are a few more levels underground,” Keith answered. Voltron was already a pretty towering building. “They’re shelters, in case of a natural disaster or a massive attack,” he explained to him.

“Huh. That’s pretty cool,” Lance looked up at the ceiling. The fluorescent lights didn’t hurt his eyes this time. He followed Keith throughout the halls, trusting him a lot more than he trusted himself to navigate them. He had been lost a handful of times before and he didn’t want a repeat that yet again. 

Silence happened between the two of them again. Lance could feel Keith’s hesitation and anxiety. It felt like he was nervous to ask a question. At least, that was what Lance was able to equate it too. 

“Is there something on your mind?” Lance eventually asked.

“Yesterday is,” Keith answered rather quickly, looking at Lance again, staring a bit harder before looking away.

“Okaaaay. What about yesterday?” Lance followed-up.

“You. After the battle, were you…” Keith squared his shoulders a little and Lance felt concern again, the same anxiety and slight embarrassment. “Were you okay? You looked horrible. And no offense, but you still kind of do,” Keith didn’t mean it as an insult, Lance could tell. Lance had also never heard that tone in Keith’s voice before or felt anything like this from him. It was kind of weird.

A  _ nice _ kind of weird. Which was also weird for Lance to feel.

But he shoved his own feelings away into a small bottle. He didn’t have to space to feel much more.

“I’m drained,” he admitted. 

“Did you overextend yourself?” Keith’s brows furrowed in concern.

“Yeah. I didn’t mean to. But I guess right now dealing with a bunch of people in shock,” Lance had been in a cacophony of emotions. It was like he was standing right next to speakers blaring heavy metal for hours on end with bodies pushing and shoving against him. It was the emotional equivalent to being beaten up, he felt.

Keith hummed, “Are you okay to be around people now? You should be recovering, not pushing yourself.”

“I’m fine,” Lance brushed him off. “Have you ever done that? Use your powers too much?” Lance hadn’t seen Keith really use his flames.

Oh. Somber, regret. Lance chewed the inside of his cheek and wondered if he had asked a wrong question.

“Once. I ended up nearly burning down a building because I lost my grip on things. It was when I was first developing my powers,” Keith answered. Lance felt like there was a bit more to that but he didn’t push it. 

“I know the way it can affect someone when they push things too far. I’m surprised you’re standing though,” Keith paused his walking to tie up his hair, which of course made Lance stare.

“Right. Yeah. No, I’m fine. Coran and I are pausing some training exercises until he feels like I’m okay I guess,” Lance was suddenly familiar with their surroundings. They were going to approach the closed door soon. 

“Right. Yeah. No?” Keith smirked at him and Lance nudged him with his shoulder.

“You get the point,” Lance rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know, it sounds a bit contradicting…” Keith teasing was a new, slightly frustrating yet still good thing too. Lance wondered if he was just pushing the right buttons that day or something.

“Is this what Shiro has to deal with?” Lance smiled.

“He was worse. Teenage Shiro was the worst,” he sounded fond and still joking.

“I don’t think anyone is a good teenager. Ourselves included,” Lance was seventeen and knew damn well that he was a little shit. And moody, extra moody now. He also knew that Keith was moody too. 

“People don't seem to be at a decent personality age until they’re thirty. As soon as you reach Coran’s age I feel like people level out unless they're a soccer mom or something like that,” Keith explained to him and Lance nodded in agreement. 

“It’s because they’re closer to death,” Lance stated bluntly. Keith laughed, looking a bit startled.

“I think Coran would kill you if you said to him,” Keith shook his head and this time Lance grinned.

He was so focused on talking that he didn’t notice that they had approached the door. “Lance! Keith! It took you two long enough to get here,” Pidge yelled at them from where she was located next to Hunk.

“Sorry. We had to stop because of Lance needed to hurl,” Keith went back to teasing him.

“I did _not_ hurl. There wasn’t any puking,” Lance jumped to his defense. 

“Oh man. Did Keith take you on his bike? He took me once and I actually did puke,” Hunk placed a hand on his stomach as if the nauseous feeling was back from that day.

“You puke with basically everything, Hunk. That’s why we never go to Elitches together,” Lance pointed out.

Hunk pointed at him as if to refute Lance’s point before he just nodded. “You’re right. I can’t help it though! I have a weak stomach,” Hunk pouted.

Pidge pushed up their glasses, “Guys can we focus on the fact that we’re finally opening up the door?” They interrupted the boys.

“Right, sorry,” Lance looked at the door.

“Let’s crack into it,” Hunk was buzzing with excitement now. Keith stood next to Lance, his arms crossed over his chest. His face looked relatively disinterested but Lance knew that he was eager.

Pidge grinned as she proceeded to break into the room. “Hunk, help me out,” she gestured to him. Hunk came over, doing as they wanted him to do and using his strength to Pidge’s advantage. The door opened slowly and Pidge did something Lance definitely didn’t understand and the lights flickered on. At least one of them did, casting an eerie aura over the room. It looked akin to a horror movie when a ghost was about to grab the actor, the flickering included.

Even in the dim light, Lance could clearly see the stuff that had been shoved in there. Pidge sneezed.

“I don’t think this place has been opened in years,” Pidge sneezed again.

Immediately Hunk went over to one of the tables, looking around it. “What is all this stuff?” Hunk lifted up a blanket to see what was underneath. “Oh sweet! I guess this is some old gear that was left over or something from the ‘70s,” Hunk took off the rest of the tarp. Lance came around to look at what he was excited over. It was old weapons, mainly guns.

Hunk lifted one of them carefully, examining it. “I don’t think this shot bullets,” he mumbled, mainly to himself.

“What else would it shoot?” Lance tried to see the gun, but it didn’t spark up any memories of what he knew about the Voltron from before.

Keith came over, Lance didn’t have to look to know he was there. “I think that belonged to Transducer. Going based off of the color scheme,” he leaned in to see it. 

At that Pidge scurried over to them, “Transducer was able to convert energy, right?”

“He must’ve been able to somehow manipulate energy to shoot it through this then,” Hunk put the gun back down.

“Hunk, look at this,” Pidge grabbed Hunk’s sleeve and dragged him over to the biggest item in the room. “Help me get this thing off. I think it’s a plane under here,” Pidge and Hunk took off the tarp, unleashing an amount of dust that made them all cough violently. Lance covered his arm with his face. 

“Can you guys warn us next time?” Lance kept coughing, going over to the plane to check it out. He paused, turning around and looking at the doorway. Light from the hallway was bleeding into the room.

“Something wrong?” Keith seemed to notice his pause.

“Hi, Matt. Hi, Coran,” Lance greeted the two before they even got into his view. neither of them seemed put off by Lance greeting them so quickly. 

“I thought there was activity down here,” Matt looked around the room. 

Pidge looked at their brother, “There’s so much old tech! We can refurbish this stuff.” Their eyes were already gleaming with excitement.

“I’ve never been in here,” Matt admitted, going over to his sibling and Hunk to check out the plane too. “Coran?” He looked at Coran, who was looking over some of the old tools. The amount of nostalgia was almost overwhelming and it made Lance’s heart hurt for a moment.

“Quite possibly. I do think some of this stuff is still functional,” Coran lifted up a small sphere. “This belonged to Sparrow! She would drop these on people’s heads. Knocked quite a few of us out on accident at one point,” Coran chuckled. He looked at Lance and Lance felt some worry from him.

“I heard about that,” Keith piped up. 

“It was actually quite amusing,” Coran tossed the ball in the air. It almost slipped from his hand but he caught it, placing it back on the table where it belonged. He cleared his throat, acting as if nothing happened. “We closed this room off a while ago. Didn’t find the use in all of these, considering the downgrade of power we had in the last decades. The circuit must’ve shorted and we never bothered to fix it. How’d you get it open?”

“I broke the paneling. Then I had Hunk force it open,” Pidge informed him from where she was buried in the plane’s hood, looking over Hunk’s shoulder as he and Matt talked about the engine. The trio was hard to see from how far back into the room they were, but Lance could see their auras just fine. Matt was a darker shade of green than Pidge, a more bluish tone.

“That would certainly get a door open!” Coran approved.

“So, do you think any of this stuff can be useful to us now?” Keith asked him, Lance’s fingers brushed over a pair of gloves. He recognized them from the hero Vulcan, who had used them to help with using lava to his advantage. 

“This stuff is pretty cool,” Lance mumbled.

“Maybe,” Coran stroked his chin. “Matt, Pidge, and I can go through it and see what’s still functional, or can be upgraded to something more modern.”

Lance had to wonder who else these weapons would go to. But that also wasn’t his place to question, he felt.

“Fuck yeah!” Pidge popped up, cheering at the mere idea of getting their hands on all of the tech. “Coran, I can grow you a million flowers right now.”

“Language, Pidgey,” Matt chided from where he was still buried in the engine.

“I’m almost fifteen, Matt.”

Lance laughed and Coran placed a hand on his shoulder and he tried not to shy away from it, Coran wore gloves most of the time so the skin on skin wasn’t a possibility. “Are you feeling alright?” Coran asked, his voice a low murmur.

“Just tired,” Lance answered back.

Coran nodded, letting go of him and looking at the plane. “This room was due for a cleaning, anyway. I’ll go inform Allura on our plans. Be careful in here, some of this stuff could still be activated!” Coran left the room and Lance placed his hands in his jacket pockets.

“Lance, check this out,” Keith called him over. Lance gave another glance to the trio near the plane. All of them absorbed in whatever engineer things they were trying to figure out with the plane. 

“What is it?” Lance wandered over to Keith. 

The room was a lot more interesting than he thought it would be. They ended up spending a lot of time in there, just looking at things and removing the dust-covered tarps. While Lance wasn’t interested in trying his hand at fixing things, he felt the biggest urge to clean the  _ shit  _ out of the room. Or at least fix the lights in there, it was way too dark.

“Do you think I can safely get back to my car?” Lance asked Matt, “Without all of the reporters swarming me.” Matt was looking at a guitar and amp that a hero had once used.

“Yeah, you should be fine,” his voice sounded sort of distant as he looked over things.

“Cool, cool cool cool,” Lance clicked his tongue and glanced over his shoulder to where the other three were. “I’m going to head out,” he called over to them. “Veronica might have my head if I’m not home soon,” he was also feeling even more drained now. He wanted to take a long nap.

“Are you good to drive, bro?” Hunk looked at him.

Lance nodded, waving him off with his hand. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll see you guys later,” he left the room, hearing a few “bye lance”s from everyone else.

When he got out to the parking lot he was glad to see that his car was left unharmed. He sat in the front seat for a moment, leaning his head against the steering wheel before heading home. Lance really needed a nap before another migraine decided to take a bite out of him.

There were several cars in front of his house when he pulled up. “Fuck,” he leaned back against his seat and steeled himself to see his family.

Lance wondered if there were any emotional breaks for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? not updating for a few months again? more likely than u think (im so sorry)


	12. Keith

Seeing his face covered in bruises wasn’t unusual. Still, Keith couldn’t help but gently poke at the large bruise that was on his jaw. It was purple, yellow at the edges. It was a nasty bruise he had to admit that. That Galra member had managed to get real good hit on him. There were also small bruises on his neck that he had just notice, no doubt from when she took him down with her legs.

Keith tipped his head and sighed before leaving the bathroom. No matter how bruised and sore he was, he had to go out and patrol in about ten minutes. Even if he wasn’t assigned to go patrolling, Keith would still want to keep watch.

Given the increase of attacks, they increased their patrols. Not that they hadn’t already been doing that but they were definitely even more aware now. It got underneath Keith’s skin, the way that the Galra seemed to be slipping under their nose. There hadn’t been any pings on their alert since their last attack but it had barely been a week. Keith imagined that things were going to pick up again soon, even if none of them wanted it to.

He adjusted his boots, making sure he had everything he needed before heading out. 

That day he would be doing a wide patrol, the areas that they were patrolling individually had increased so that they would be able to cover all of their bases. Part of him hoped that there was nothing wrong. Another part of him wanted to run into someone, wanted to go head to head and stop something before it even begun. 

The sun had begun to set, casting a glow on the city as Keith walked around it. He traveled from high vantage points. It was easier to see everything that was going on from above. 

It all seemed to be going pretty normal. He kept his eyes peeled for anything that could be a sign of trouble. There were fewer people on the street than usual. Most people were opting to not go outside since they were (rightfully) worried about the Galra attacking them. Keith didn’t like seeing the city in such a state.

Everyone was on guard and stilted. 

Keith stood on top of a building. He scanned his surroundings. A group of teenagers laughed loudly, one of them stumbling into another which only made the group laugh even louder. The group rounded a corner and Keith lost sight of them.

There were two women walking together, arms linked side by side. Something didn’t seem quite right about them. Keith didn’t care that one woman had a long lizard tail, or that the other woman’s tongue flickered out from her mouth every now and then, tasting the air or how both of their noses were flat, nearly slits and their eyes were wide. It was the way that they looked around. How they didn’t seem to be wanting attention to be called to them from how they hunched over. Each glance around the area seemed suspicious and on alert. From where he stood, he could see that the one with the tail had a necklace that glittered in the sun. He squinted his eyes, pressing the side of his helmet where there were buttons installed, attempting to see if he could zoom in.

The necklace was just a necklace. But he caught something on the woman that she was walking with, he could see something glittering in the sunlight. Keith zoomed in with the visor, scowling once he recognized it. There was a small earring in the upper part of her ear, nestled in the cartilage. It had three different points on the bottom, and two rising from the top. There was a small purple gemstone in the middle of it. Keith narrowed his eyes. They began to walk towards him and he ducked lower, still watching them but his visibility was definitely limited. Keith followed after them once they passed him.

It could be nothing. It could just be him being hyper paranoid and incredibly creepy at the moment. But Keith would rather it be nothing than him ignoring something that could be a threat. Most people didn't just get Galra themed jewelry from just anywhere.

Keith trailed after the two women, carefully hiding behind buildings and staying away from their point of view. Eventually, he had to leave the rooftops and needed to trail them from the ground level. The path they were walking was full of twists and turns and led into the more underside of town (Keith was no longer in the area of his patrol but he couldn’t care about that right now). 

He was lucky that neither of the women had noticed his presence. The two of them finally stopped at a bar, the woman with the flickering tongue laughed at the joke the bouncer said. She tucked a strand of long hair behind her ear and tilted her head, a subtle movement that would have looked like just flirting to those who weren’t on high alert.

The bouncer smiled and moved out of the way allowing the two women to enter the bar. Keith watched for a moment, frowning. The bouncer took back his position in front of the door. 

Keith couldn’t exactly get into the bar dressed as he was. The emblem of Voltron was on his chest, and his costume was familiar to most people at this point. Fire Starter had become a more recognizable icon and it wouldn’t be easy for him to just waltz straight into a bar.

It would be easy to overtake the bouncer but that didn’t guarantee he would have an easy time getting past the entrance of the bar. There wasn’t any entrance that Keith could see that would allow him to get in with the least amount of interaction.

At least, from the front.

Keith moved around the building, trying to see if he could find any way in. Stealth wasn’t something he prioritized but busting into the bar wouldn’t go well. It would draw attention and heighten the situation to something more dangerous. He contemplated contacting Shiro for a moment, or maybe Pidge since they would be able to sneak in a lot easier. He decided to forgo both of those options.

So he went around. The bar wasn’t large and there wasn’t a way for him to get into the back. Keith spotted a camera, there were actually several cameras. Most of them were pointed to the two main entrances, a few of them were just on the side of the building. A bar wouldn’t need such high security. Keith frowned.

There was a blind spot to the cameras, he realized after he did one more round. The roof was completely free and as far as he could tell, no one was even paying attention to it. Keith climbed up onto a nearby building, using the fire escape. The fire escape was old and rusty. It made a lot of noise as Keith walked up to the roof, his boots clicking against the metal. He was almost spotted by a kid in their room when he reached the highest level, not wanting to risk being scene Keith quickly pulled himself up onto the roof, hiding as the kid searched for him.

After a moment passed, Keith stood up to his full height. The sun had set but the helmet that Matt had equipped him with made things easier to see in the dark. The distance between the two buildings wasn’t large. The bar had a skylight on top and a maintenance entrance to the roof.

Keith walked backward.

Then he began to run before leaping across the buildings. The bar was shorter than the apartment building he was on. He landed roughly, despite trying to prevent as much impact as possible. He landed crouched, one of his hands touching the top of the bar just barely. His knees ached from the impact and he had landed with a loud ‘thud’.

Below him, no one seemed to have taken notice.

Keith stood to his full height. He walked over the skylight, peering down into the bar below. No one seemed to be paying attention to the ceiling. Keith didn’t have the plans of the building, limiting him on how he could sneak around in the vents. If he dropped down through the skylight, there was the very high chance he would be seen. 

He decided that he would take his chance with the maintenance entrance. His helmet beeped quietly in his ear, and a message came over his left eye on the visor. 

Allura was calling him. He pressed his finger to the button on the side.

_ “Fire Starter, any updates on your patrol?” _

“Nothing interesting. There haven’t been any threats, I’m doubling back right now,” Keith lied.

_ “Keep me updated if anything does happen. Remember Keith, anything you see report, it back to me  _ immediately.”

“I will,” Keith hung up on her. He grabbed the handle of the maintenance door, not surprised to find it locked. He dug through the small pouch that he had on his hip. He had a small rake tool in there along with a pin. Keith knelt down, gently placing the pin inside of it before grabbing his rake tool and listening as he raked the pins. He continued the raking motion until he heard the lock unclick and he twisted it gently, the tool still inside as he upset the pins. 

Keith twisted the handle and entered the building, placing his rake tool back where it belonged. Keith could distantly hear the band playing. He walked down the steps that led up to the entrance, coming up to a corridor. 

By pure coincidence, a map of the building was in that corridor. Keith was at least glad that they kept up with fire code and safety laws. He checked the corridor and seeing no one there he traveled down the halls, taking a sharp left once he reached the end of the first one. He made sure to stay closer to the shadows, staying hidden and walking quietly.

As he traveled further in the bar he could hear voices coming from the right of him. Footsteps were approaching and Keith pressed himself against the wall. He peeked out slightly, trying to listen more than seeing. 

“I’m not sure about that Axca person. How are we supposed to trust her? Who’s to say she isn’t some rat.”

“She’s supposed to be close to Lotor.”

“And? I’m in this because I want to use my powers freely. Not because of-of Lotor, or Zarkon. I identify with the ideology, not with the leaders.”

“Wow. Deep,” the second person in the conversation’s voice dripped with sarcasm. 

The two of them were getting closer. They walked past them and Keith moved quickly. He got them both down, knocking them on the back of the neck before dragging them away so they were hidden in a janitor's closet. Once he ensured that they were safely kept, Keith headed down the direction they had come from.

Keith could hear voices as he traveled further down the corridor. He could also hear the bar from the music. 

At the end of the corridor, there was a door. Some light was bleeding out of it and Keith could hear the voices even more then. Some of them were still muffled and Keith pressed closer to the wall, not moving into view of the door window. 

“Right now the plan is to have lower level Galra members such as yourself help recruit,” the lead speaker stated. It was a feminine voice that had an authoritative tone in it.

“What, like the Jehovah Witness?” Someone else spoke up, sounding on the verge of laughter. Someone else began to laugh but it was quickly cut off.

“We have a list of names for you to work with. I expect you to contact these people and get us to join,  _ no matter the cost _ .”

“Excessive force? Are you saying we beat people into submission?” The same person who had almost laughed before spoke up again.

“If they challenge you to a fight, then yes. Beat them into submission. I doubt you’ll struggle to get any of these people to join. According to our sources, they’re very likely to align themselves with us. I expect them to come to Daibazaal once you’ve gathered them all.”

“Can we trusssst thesse sssourcesss?” A new voice added.

“You can trust Lotor. You can trust us,” the leader of the group stated, “Now, each folder will have names and where to find these people, as well information about their abilities and a basic profile on each of them.”

Keith furrowed his brows. Information on even possible Galra members was just what they needed. He glanced into the window. Inside were five Galra members, two of them being the two women that Keith had seen earlier. Another woman was standing up front, her back was facing the door but her shoulders were squared and Keith recognized the way she was holding herself. He also recognized the gun on her belt. There was another woman standing against the wall, staring at the door and watching everything. He recognized her from the attack at Lance’s school. Keith ducked away before she could see him, not catching sight of the fifth person in the room.

“Hold on. I just saw something,” the woman who had been watching the door spoke up. Everything grew silent inside the room and Keith moved quickly, trying to get away from any direct confrontation on his own. If Keith got caught they would no doubt burn any trail that he could follow.

He didn’t want to call Allura. Keith knew that logically he should call Allura but also knew that she would be pissed that he got in so deeply without letting her know. The door opened and he heard someone leave the room. 

“Check the right. You, check the left. Keep those files close to you. Zethrid, come with me,” the first voice directed.

“What about me?” Piped up someone Keith hadn’t heard before. He had to assume it was the fifth person in the room.

“Warn the bartender. He’ll know what to do,” the leader instructed. The fifth person confirmed and began to run towards the bar.

He waited, listening to the footsteps as everyone separated. Good. Separation was going to make it easier. 

“Zethrid, find them.”

“I thought you wanted to stick together,” Zethrid replied.

“No. I can handle this on my own. Make sure all of the exits are covered. I don’t want this guy to get out of here,” the leader instructed.

“Got it,” Zethrid sounded excited by the prospect.

Keith stayed still, listening. He stayed still until he heard both pairs of footsteps leave. When they were gone he stood, checking both ends of the corridor. A gun clicked next to head. Keith turned his head, looking down the barrel of his gun. “Hello,” the Galra member greeted him cooly.

“I suggest you just surrender now. You’re alone, and you don’t have an escape route out of here,” she narrowed her eyes at him, glaring. Keith didn’t reply. “Take off your helmet.”

“No,” she wasn’t going to see his face. 

“Come on, Fire Starter. No need to stay hidden, you can see my face just fine,” her voice was flat, her expression hadn’t changed.

Keith glanced over her shoulder. 

“Turn around. Take off your helmet,” she ordered.

He did as told. Keith waited for a moment before turning around sharply. He gripped the Galra’s arm and twisted the gun away from him. She dropped the gun. Her free arm came swinging around and she gripped him back. Her knee came up and kicked Keith in the side with it. Keith let go of her arm and stepped to the side to avoid her charging at him again.

The Galra member attempted to hit him quickly. Her fists came flying at his face, giving Keith no time to retaliate. He backed up, avoiding getting hit. She was backing him into a corner and Keith tried to find a way out. She aimed at his stomach, her fists connecting with his midsection. Sharp pain flared up in his stomach and Keith brought his elbow around and sharply hit her chin. Her teeth clacked together with the impact and her head shot back.

He spotted a free spot to the right of her side. Keith somersaulted, slipping and landing behind her in a crouched position. The Galra member turned around and began to fight him once more. Her movements were quick and fluid, she spun on the heel of her left foot and Keith just barely missed getting hit. 

Keith created small flames with his hands. They were positioned like daggers. He aimed towards her midsection and she attempted to dodge. Keith took the offensive. He kicked underneath, aiming towards her ankles and allowing a small flame to come out of the bottom of the boot.

The Galra member jumped, glaring at him as she landed back on her feet. She paused for a moment before striking at him. Keith blocked it, moving her arm away from him by hitting her wrist. He wasn’t intending on harming her, just getting her to back off. 

“Hey, buddy,” another voice made Keith turn around. He was greeted with a large grin. Zethrid moved faster than he expected given how much muscle mass she had.

The giddy Galra member seemed to laugh as her knuckles connected with Keth’s face, chipping a bit of his visor with the force of the blow. He screamed and dropped to his knees—not incapacitated, but looking for another way out. Zethrid lashed out with her heel, launching the man backward across the room and Into Axca who kicked him back into the floor. Zethrid was blocking the front of him and Axca was still behind him.

He couldn’t take the two of them unless he planned on burning down the entire building. Keith ran toward Zethrid, his entire arm getting covered in flames as he swung towards her. Zethrid didn’t flinch from his flames. Her left fist came into his side and his body came into impact with the wall. He heard it crack behind him and Keith let out a wheeze, trying to get his wind back.

Keith tried to collect himself but both of the Galra members were rushing at him now. He ran forward towards them both. He couldn’t take them on.

Keith produced steam with the bottom of his feet. He jumped over the two of them, sprinting away before either of them could grab him. 

“You won’t be able to get out!” Zethrid laughed, running behind him. Keith turned around, shooting flames between the two of them. She stumbled backward and away from the heat of the fire. 

He kept running, tracing his steps back to the maintenance entrance. Keith ran up the steps and turned his body, breaking the door down with his shoulder. One of the snake-like women were waiting up there for him. Her face morphed even more and she let out a long hiss, her tongue flickering out. 

“ _ Look into my eyes _ ,” the woman hissed. 

Keith felt tempted to, pausing. Her eyes were wide and yellow, her pupils were slitted. Keith couldn’t help but stare into them.

A sharp ringing sound came across his helmet that broke him out of it. Allura was calling him and it took him a moment until he answered, continuing to run away from the Galra.

_ “Fire Starter, where are you? I turned on your locator and you were nowhere  _ near  _ your patrol route!” _

“A bar called The Jumble is currently being used as a Galra meet up spot.”

_ “Do you need backup or assistance?”  _ Allura sounded angry.

“Send some of the Blade over. I’ll return back to headquarters,” Keith couldn’t hear anyone running behind him anymore. He glanced over his shoulder and felt surprised that he wasn’t being followed. Instead of dwelling on it Keith just ran towards headquarters.

Several police cars passed him as he ran, going in the direction to the bar.

Keith arrived at Voltron, preparing to deal with Allura.  
  
  


Allura was standing in her office. Her arms were put around her and the marks on her face were glowing a faint pink. Coran wasn’t in the room but Lance was, looking lost. She glared at Keith when he came in. “Do you mind informing me what you were doing, Fire Starter?”

“I was following a lead,” Keith defended himself.

“Should I leave?” Lance asked and Allura snapped her head towards him, glaring. Lance put his hands up and slipped out of the room. Keith followed him before looking at Allura and matching her glare with his own. 

“If you have a lead you should  _ inform _ me of it  _ ahead of time _ ,” Allura hissed.

“They were on their way to a meeting!”

“How did you know that!? You could have trailed some random strangers for no reason!”

“Well, they weren’t! One had the Galra emblem on her necklace,” Keith could smell himself smoking. “I followed them and found a Galra hideout. I did my job.”

“You potentially also burned that route. So congrats, Keith,” Allura told him.

“I did my job,” he repeated. “They had names. Files on people they were trying to get to join them.”

“Did you manage to get any of those files?” Allura asked.

“No.”

“Go clean up, get out of costume,” she ordered him. “You’re off duty.”

“I’m sure the Mamora can locate the files easily. I know what four of the members look like — “ 

“The Mamora have already made some arrests.” 

“I have information we can use, Allura,” Keith moved towards her, ignoring her and trying to get her to listen. “They said they were going to go to Daibazaal!”

“Keith! Go clean up,” Allura raised her voice, giving him another sharp glare. 

Keith felt himself smoldering and took a deep breath.

“Fine.”

He turned on his heel and left the room. Lance was standing next to the door, trying to look like he hadn’t been listening. Keith glared at him again as he stomped towards the showers.

Allura didn’t even want to listen to what he was saying. 

Once he reached the showers he took off his helmet quickly before hesitating. He could go now. Just leave Voltron and track down more members, find out the plans that they had been looking at. He wanted to go back out there, wanted to go and chase them down. They had stopped following him and he wanted to know why. He wanted to get his hands on their files. He wanted to know what Daibazaal was. He stared down at his helmet and ran his finger over the chip from Zethrid.

But he was already on thin ice and Allura’s patience was running thin these days. Keith didn't even want to go home. Dealing with Shiro wasn't on his priority list, he had already faced extreme disappointment and yelling. Keith was beginning to feel exhausted from the anger dying down and his body was beginning to ache from the fight. Still, he felt restless and a bit gross.

Keith glared down at his helmet and took a deep breath. He placed it down before taking off the rest of his costume. He turned on the water, keeping it on the coldest setting. It irritated his skin and the bathroom became steamy. There was some ash on his skin that went down the drain with the water. Keith scrubbed his hands through his hair.

They had managed to get a few members arrested. But a few members wasn’t enough. Keith could have easily brought some of the members in on his own. He had been so close.  _ She  _ had been so close and he had just let her escape. He didn’t doubt that he was going to run into her again. Keith stayed underneath the water until his skin got irritated by the amount of scrubbing. Eventually, he turned off the water, dried off, and got into sweatpants and a sweatshirt. 

Leaving the locker room he began to head towards training room.

“Are you really going to train after showering?” Lance’s voice stopped him and Keith felt a rush of irritation run through him. He turned around, looking at Lance with his arms over his chest and frown set on his face.

“Yeah, well, I’m clearly not good enough for my job, so I need to train,” Keith replied curtly. 

It didn't seem to phase Lance. “Do you want to get something to eat?” Lance asked.

“Why?” Keith furrowed his brows, frowning at him. He wasn't in the mood. “I could be doing better things. So can you, you look well enough to train.”

Whatever rise he was trying to get out of Lance didn't seem to work. “Because you need to eat. And I'll pay, and we can go wherever you want,” Lance wasn't standing down.

Keith glared at him and to his surprise, Lance just gave him a weak smile. His stomach growled and the smile on Lance’s face became more friendly, a bit more playful. 

“We can discuss whatever theories you have going on in there,” Lance tapped his own temple. “But I don’t think either of us should go into that training room right now.”

He stayed standing there for a moment longer. “Fine,” Keith agreed after a moment of hesitation. 

“Sal’s?” Lance offered, looking entirely too friendly for the situation.   


“Fine.” He said again.

“Cool, let’s go,” Lance began to lead him opposite of the training room. Keith ran his tongue over his teeth as he stood still before following after Lance. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://anchor.fm/aslongasitsspooky  
> Shameless promo, I have a podcast now  
> It should be out on other platforms by Monday!


	13. Lance

Keith and Lance ended up at McDonald's. They sat across from each other in the red booths. Lance had offered to just go through the drive-thru and for them to sit in his car but the line for it was freakishly long for this time of night.

Keith felt a little agitated still. It reminded Lance of when his dog wanted to chase after a squirrel badly yet was told no. He gave off the same energy, the same feeling of restlessness and anxiety. His aura danced around him, spiking up in odd places. It seemed a bit redder that night, more striking. Keith was bouncing his leg rapidly, his head resting in his left hand while his left tapped impatiently on the table, he hadn't made a move for his food.

Lance, on the other, was not going to wait until his fries got cold to eat them. “So,” he intelligently began.

“You know you don't need to play therapist just because you deal with feelings,” Keith snapped at him. “I don't need anyone else's emotions but mine.”

Lance took it with no issue. Sure it sort of hurt that Keith was implying that Lance may be trying mess around with his feelings. But Lance had heard a lot worse in his life and he just tried not to get annoyed. If he got annoyed, there was a chance Keith could get more annoyed, even though Lance was sure his influence was limited to touch.

“I'm not trying to be a therapist,” Lance dunked a french fry into his milkshake. Keith stared at him

“That's gross.”

“What? No, it's not,” now Lance let the offended tone slip into his voice.

“Yeah, it is. Who does that?” Keith wrinkled his nose.

 

“A lot of people!” Lance pouted, “It's not bad. It's savory.” He grabbed another fry, sacrificing one of his own to prove his point as he dipped it in the chocolate shake.

He placed it in front of Keith's face. “Try it,” he said.

“No.”

“Try it,” he demanded this time. “Come on you have to eat it before it gets  _ too _ soggy.”

“How about not letting it get soggy at all?” Keith's nose did the wrinkly thing again as he frowned. Lance tapped the front of his lips with the fry, basically laying on the table.

Keith stared at it, making him cross-eyed before he finally admitted defeat and ate the french fry. Lance gave him a look of pure smugness.

Keith chewed it slowly as if it pained him. Lance knew it didn't. Eventually. Keith sat back with his arms crossed. “It's not terrible,” Keith told him, looking away.

Lance smirked, taking that as Keith enjoying it. “Told you so.”

Keith rolled his eyes and Lance swore he saw the faintest hint of a smile on his face. Finally, Keith began to pick at his food. Lance sat back, feeling a little bit better now than Keith was feeling better. “So, I’m sure you have a ton of theories and ideas about what’s going on?” He knocked their ankles together underneath the table so that Keith would look at him.

Behind Keith, a McDonald’s employee swept up some trash. Keith shifted and that drew Lance’s attention back to him. There weren’t that many people actually inside the building, which was nice. It was calm and still inside. Lance couldn’t feel anyone else's feelings over Keith’s.

Keith felt strongly enough that it didn’t matter, he drowned everyone else out in that moment. It was actually pretty nice.

“Most of what I’m concerned about isn’t just theory. They’re clearly trying to recruit people. I just want to figure out how they’re getting into contact with each other. There was a list full of names and contacts but how’d they get that information? The only way you can figure that out is through the—”

“Database. Through the database which no one can get into unless they work for the Power section of the government,” and all of that was classified. Lance didn’t know anyone except for the chair holder and the PR person.

“Or they managed to hack into it, which can be done. I’m pretty sure Pidge has tried to before,” Keith leaned back into the booth.

“Has she succeeded?”

“No. They either get caught before or they can’t get in. I’m surprised the feds haven’t shown up to her front door,” Keith ran a hand through his hair before collecting it together and tying it up.

For a moment Lance got distracted by Keith’s neck, which was something he shouldn’t be getting distracted by. “So you think there’s a mole?” Lance raised a brow, he lowered his voice so that no one overheard.

“Most likely.”

“There’s nothing to prove that other than circumstantial evidence,” Lance spoke with his hands.

“I know that,” Keith rolled his eyes but he didn’t seem to be annoyed by Lance. “I want to prove it though, that there’s a mole. Voltron has connections. Allura knows people and she can totally do an investigation with the Mamora.”

Lance frowned, “I don’t think she would go for that. That’s a completely different jurisdiction — “

“I know that, Lance.”

Keith sounded annoyed with him this time.

“But it doesn’t mean that  _ we _ can’t do anything.”

Keith’s eyes lit up. “We can’t do anything. Allura will kill us and I’m sure we’ll get into trouble legally. Being a superhero is already illegal, they just let us get away with it,” he denied it despite Lance being able to feel his excitement.

“Of course we can. We’re sneaky. I mean haven’t you seen all of those teen movies where they get away with the most ridiculous stuff?”

“Those are movies, Lance,” Keith raised a brow and he smirked at him.

“Pidge and Hunk would be willing to help. Unless you can hack and know how to work technology,” Lance leaned forward a bit, resting his head in his hand.

“If we have our own operation then we’ll have to start with that bar I broke into. I don’t think they’ll be there anymore but there could still be a trace,” Keith shifted and leaned forward too. Both of their voices were low and quiet now. The two to them were just whispering to each other. Part of Lance felt paranoid that someone was overhearing them. 

But it was McDonald’s and you could walk around shirtless (not naked, this wasn’t a Waffle House) in a McDonald’s and no one would blink.

“You can’t go in though. Your powers would be too noticeable and I’m sure they’re looking out for you anyway,” even without his suit on Lance thought Keith would be noticeable. Especially if went around asking questions.

 

Keith frowned a bit. “You’re right. But we need to get in there as soon as possible. We can go there tonight even —”

 

“Woah, dude, Keith we can’t go there tonight. They’re going to be on an especially high look out now,” Lance cut him off, lifting his hands up in a surrendering motion.

“You’re right,” Keith frowned. “We should wait until everything’s calmed down over there,” Keith leaned back into the booth again. He bit down on his fingernails.

“Plus we still have to talk to Pidge and Hunk.”

“I’m 100% sure Pidge would be interested in this,” Keith looked at Lance. All of the anger was gone from him and he looked at Lance with a borderline playful expression.

“Hunk might take a while to convince,” Lance scratched his chin. He grinned at Keith though, “He is my best friend so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

At this point, Lance’s milkshake had basically become lukewarm ice cream soup. Lance still drank it because he wasn’t going to waste a valuable milkshake.

“What do we do if Allura does find out though? And Shiro,” Lance looked at Keith, raising his eyebrow.

“They won’t find out,” Keith said.

“Right but we should still think about that, I mean, just in case.”

“We’ll get there when we get there after we talk to Hunk and Pidge.”

Lance frowned a little. “Okay. Sounds good. We can talk at your place or something.”

“It should be your place,” Keith tilted his head a little bit. “Your family has no idea about your abilities. And I live with Shiro and Matt. If Matt caught wind of Pidge doing like this I’m not sure how he’ll react and I really don’t want to deal with Shiro being disappointed before we can even begin.”

“My place sounds good then,” Lance agreed. It was sound logic. “I have to warn you that I have a dog. And my sister Veronica lives with us and I can’t guarantee that she won’t get nosey.”

“I’m allergic to dogs,” Keith stated.

Lance reached out and gently touched Keith’s fingertips. When Keith didn’t pull away, he laid his hand fully over Keith’s. “Oh. Oh, that is so sad. My dog is such a good girl and she loves to cuddle,” Lance patted Keith’s hand out of sympathy before letting go. “How about cats? Lazuli also tends to be a snuggle bug.”

“Cats are good,” Keith nodded.

“Oh perfect because she’s also  _ very  _ fluffy,” Lance grinned.

  
  
  


Arranging for Hunk and Pidge to come over was easy. Hunk was going to come over to Lance’s anyway and Pidge was just eager to pet his dog. As soon as Pidge stepped foot into the house they looked around, “Lance. Where’s your dog?”

As if on cue, Lance heard the telltale signs of his dog coming. “Ponyo!” He called out. Ponyo rushed around the corner, her entire body wagging with her tail as she jumped up. “Ponyo! No. Don’t jump,” Lance scolded.

“Let her jump. If I die this way then I die in heaven,” Pidge stretched her arms out. Ponyo jumped on her, knocking her just a little. Pidge wrapped their arms around Ponyo and lifted her up.

“Careful, she might be on you,” Lance warned.

Pidge let go of the dog. Ponyo immediately moved on to sniffing Hunk in greeting and circling him like a shark. Her tail was wagging even harder. Hunk leaned down and let Ponyo give him some hardcore, wet and sloppy kisses.

“Who’s a good girl Ponyo? Such a pretty girl,” Hunk spoke sweetly to her, making Ponyo lose her shit even more. She placed her paws on Hunk’s shoulders like she was trying to push him down.

“Ponyo don’t jump on Pidge,” Lance scolded.

“I literally do not care. Ponyo is the sweetest girl. Just the cutest little baby, such a sweet, beautiful girl,” Hunk’s voice shifted from normal to high pitched as he scratched behind Ponyo’s ears.

“Where’s your cat?” Pidge asked, looking around the house.

“She’s in Lance’s room,” Keith poked his head out of the kitchen where he had stolen a caprisun.

“Oh, Keith. You’re already here,” Pidge’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I didn’t see your bike out front?”

Keith took a large sip of the caprisun. Downed like half of it at once. “I parked in the back,” he answered. Pidge narrowed her eyes.

“Huh. Okay.”

Lance ignored the two of them. “Let’s go to my room,” Lance led them to the basement door, gesturing for Hunk and Pidge to follow. Keith was already joining him.

Lazuli greeted the four of them with a loud meow, jumping from her bed to rub against Lance’s ankles. Lance scooped her into his arms and she rubbed her face against his.

“Kitty, kitty, kitty,” Pidge chanted behind Lance, moving forward to look at Lazuli. Lazuli placed her paw on Lance’s face and Lance let her down. Pidge tried to chase her but she just jumped back onto Lance’s bed. Pidge sat down on his bed and scratched her behind the ears.

Hunk sat down next to Pidge. “So you called us over. And Keith is already here. You said you guys had something to talk to us about?” Hunk looked between Lance and Keith. Lance knew what he was thinking.

“I’ll let Keith explain,” Lance did not want to encourage Hunk’s thoughts. He grabbed his desk chair and sat backward, rolling so that he was sitting next to Keith who was still standing.

“Allura won’t let us or the Mamora investigate the Galra and how they’re getting their intel. There’s a chance that they might just have an extremely skilled hacker but we think that there’s a mole somewhere. Information on who has Powers is incredibly well classified. I want to—  _ Lance  _ and I want to investigate. On our own,” Keith explained.

“And you want us to help you out, right?” Pidge had grabbed Lazuli, laying on their back with her over their face. She pawed at their glasses and Pidge set her down. Lazuli happily curled up on her chest.

“We need to be able to see the Galra’s systems. You and Hunk are great behind the scenes,” Keith gestured to the two of them.

“Plus, Hunk is super strong and can take down anyone,” Lance rolled over to him and nudged Hunk’s foot with his own.

“I don’t know, Lance. There’s that one Galra member who’s pretty tough. Plus there’s a chance we could get caught and have our superhero identities revoked,” Hunk raised his concerns.

“If all four of us are working together we can easily slip under their nose. If we keep our story straight,” Lance reassured Hunk.

“What is our story?” Pidge sat up, disturbing Lazuli who walked away with a small purr noise.

 

“Yeah, same question. We can’t just use Voltron resources without being noticed by someone. If we get caught in any way we need to have something there as some sort of back up,” Hunk frowned.

Lance and Keith made eye contact. “We don’t really have one,” Lance answered, looking back at Hunk.

“You don’t have a backup plan!?” Hunk’s voice went up an octave from worry.

“I wanted to make one,” Lance defended himself, “But Keith thought that we should wait to see if you guys were going to agree to this.”

“It’s easier to come up with a safety story with everyone else on board with it,” Keith explained, rolling his eyes. Hunk got up from Lance’s bed to pace around his room. He picked up a book on Lance’s desk that he had been neglecting to read for school. Pidge had gone silent, mulling it over.

Lance rolled around on his chair. “A backup plan shouldn’t be too hard to come up with,” Lance tried to bode Hunk into joining.

“What else does the plan include?” Hunk asked.

“Well, someone is going to have to sneak in the Galra ranks. At least, we’re thinking that anyway. We need someone to get into the bar and then track down their other hideouts,” Lance explained.

“That won’t be easy. The Galra are super tight-knit, and getting in there risks our covers being blown almost immediately,” Pidge pushed up her glasses. “If we were to do that we’ll have to be extra careful. We’ll basically be running our own sting operation and we don't know if the Mamora hasn’t already attempted something like this on their own. I know there’s stuff that we aren’t being told.”

“If there’s already a sting operation going on then we’ll figure it out when we’re in,” Keith stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That’s incredibly risky,” Lance expressed his concern this time.

“You need to take risks in situations like these,” Keith shot back.

Hunk was worrying over in the corner, staring at pictures on Lance’s wall. He exuded anxiety. “But this risk might be too much,” Hunk chewed his lower lip.

“Even if it’s risky. I’m down,” Pidge agreed. “I want to see what they’re doing anyway. And if they have access to those files it’s better to figure out how quickly and shut them down. Especially if there’s a mole.”

Everyone turned their attention to Hunk.

“I don’t know guys…” Hunk scratched his cheek.

“Hunk —”

“It’s going to be a lot of risk taking. I mean, I don’t, I don’t even know if we would be able to pull it off,” Hunk cut off Lance with his worries. “Who would go? One of us has to. Keith and I are both too noticeable. Pidge’s powers are well known and as far as we know they’re the only one with those types of abilities if you exclude their family but if the Galra have the files then they would know all of this.”

Lance pressed his mouth into a small thin line, “I’ll go in. It’s the only option. But I already knew that when I agreed to it.”

“Lance, you’re not good at combat,” Hunk frowned in concern.

“I know but if I’m careful enough I won’t have to worry about that. We don’t have another option,” Lance tried to reason. The only other option was not to do this and by now Lance was completely on Keith’s side of things. Plus Pidge had already agreed.

Hunk’s jaw tightened. He looked up at Lance’s ceiling. Above them, Ponyo was running around and Lance could hear the garage door open signaling that Veronica was most likely home now.

“Fine.” Hunk said, after a pregnant pause. “I’ll do it. But we have to be extra careful. We need to plan everything out before we make some sort of move,” Hunk told them, scanning Lance’s face before moving onto Keith’s. 

“Sounds good to me,” Lance gave Hunk a relieved smile, “A plan shouldn’t be so hard now that the both of you are on board.”

“I already have a plan,” Keith admitted.

“It’ll need work. Your plans tend to go terribly,” Pidge teased, although there was a serious undertone to their words.

“Fine, I have a plan  _ in progress _ ,” Keith corrected himself.

Pidge snapped their fingers at him, “There you go.”

“If Allura finds out then she’ll kill us and then kill our ghosts,” Hunk sighed.

“Don’t worry Hunk, she won’t figure out a thing,” Lance patted Hunk on the shoulder.

“That better be true,” Hunk told him.

Lance was sure that it was. Or he hoped that it was, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is another short chapter but it's mainly dialogue  
> i've been feeling sort of uninspiried for this story but i really want to finish it at the same time so sorry if things feel forced or odd in any way! there's a lot going on in my life right now that's keeping me busy (for one i got into college, and two i now have a podcast called As Long As It's Spooky so that's keeping me busy along with my regular school activities)  
> thanks for your patience and understanding


	14. Keith

Keith believed that if you wanted to get something done, that you would have to do it yourself. And now that he had the people and the resources to do something, he was more than happy too. Of course, a secret operation was running a lot of risks. He couldn't tell even Shiro in risk of ruining everything but he was more than happy to finally begin the steps of figuring shit out.

Pidge had begun to work on the Galra systems. They were searching endlessly for even some sort of access point, trying to figure out if there was a way for them to track down meeting points and set up pings to areas of heavy Galra activity. “The Blade is trying to set up a similar system, it's only in the beta but it still works,” Pidge explained to him. “So I took what they have right now. If I refine it enough, it should be better than their alpha.”

“What does it do?” Keith asked.

“It's supposed to pick up on suspicious activity, basically a police scanner dedicated to only Galra related business. But I'm trying to make it so we can develop patterns, see if we can actually get word of whatever it is they're doing before they do it,” Pidge elaborated. “Even if we do get someone on the inside, there's no guarantee that our spy will be trusted right away.”

“Does it pick up on just the Galra?” Keith leaned down and looked at it.

“Are you suggesting that we spy on someone else?” Pidge raised their eyebrow, looking at Keith with a slight glimmer in their eye. “It can. If we all think it’s necessary,” Pidge turned back to the systems.

“Do you think we can tune into the Blades systems?”

“Of course I can,” Pidge rolled their eyes as if hacking into an advanced police system was easy. “It might take me a while though. Both of them are high security and I’m only a third through the Galra’s system. I haven’t even gotten their whole user database, whoever organizes their files is pretty clever.”

“But you’re more clever?”

“Duh,” Pidge gave him a cocky grin, “Who’d you take me for?”

“I have full faith in you,” and Keith did. He didn’t understand this stuff as easily as Pidge or Hunk or Matt did, but he understood that at this point he should just trust Pidge and whatever she did.

“As you should,” Pidge agreed with him. Keith watched them work for a bit longer until his phone rang, an alarm letting him know that he had to go.

“Going to go train Lance now?” Pidge asked, not bothering to look up.

“I am.”

“Have fun,” Pidge smirked up at Keith from where they sat.

“I will?” Keith shrugged at them, not even wanting to amuse Pidge.

Keith left Pidge alone in their room, heading over to Voltron where Lance was meant to meet him. He changed into a more basic version of his regular costume, lacking all the armor that he typically wore.

By the time Keith got to the training room, Lance was already there, practicing a combination attack that included an uppercut, hook, cross and a switch kick all in that order before he used his left elbow and right knee. The punching back was moving with the ferocity of each attack and Keith stood back and watched. Lance kept on the ball of his feet, as he was taught, but he was still struggling with pivoting and keeping his left leg forward.

Keith approached him, moving Lance’s left leg a little bit. Lance stopped what he was doing and looked at him, his brows furrowed. There was sweat pooling there already, his cheeks were flushed and Keith probably stared for a moment too long. He broke his gaze by speaking, “You’re not pivoting as much as you should.”

“Right,” Lance stated, unusually flat toned.

Keith leaned against the punching bag. He was tempted to ask what was wrong but had never been good at that sort of stuff. Besides, Lance was the person who dealt with emotions. “Get a few more rotations in of that, then we’re going to actually spar,” he told him instead of anything comforting.

While Lance beat the shit out of the bag, Keith was busy making sure that his hands were properly wrapped and warmed up. His personal warm-up was simple, just enough to get his heart racing.

When Lance was finished, the two of them met up in the middle of the mat. “How’s the hacking going?” Lance asked Keith.

“Pidge seems to be having a fun time with it. I don’t know how long it’s going to take them, though,” Keith answered.

“Hopefully it’s not too long,” Lance mumbled, getting into a neutral stance. Keith gave his form another glance over, double checking that his non-dominant leg was forward and he was on the ball of his feet. Neither of them was using pads today.

The two of them gave each other a nod. They weren't going to bow but sometimes Keith was tempted to. When they were ready, they began to spar. Lance moved in first. He stepped up, delivering an uppercut before following with a hook, a cross and then a jab to Keith's stomach.

Keith managed to block the hook and the jab, but Lance hit his side with the cross and the uppercut made his teeth clash together. Keith was quick to switch and kick, making Lance stumble. He dropped his defense for a moment and Lance followed the kick by switching back again and aiming his knee up and pushing Lance away.

Neither of them was going to hold back this time, it seemed like Lance needed to get rid of whatever aggression was on him anyway.

“Your hits are getting better,” Keith told him, stepping up to Lance again. Another kick, this time Lance managed to dodge it.

Lance brought up his arms, deflecting the three palm strikes that Keith was going to hit his chest with. Lance brushed off Keith's arm, grabbing him by the tricep and the back of the neck. Keith struggled to get out of the break, just barely managing to do it before Lance kneed him.

“You're getting slower,” Lance said cockily.

“Maybe you're finally catching up with me,” Keith began with a sequence of moves.

He started off with a simple jab, a cross, hook, then clamping down onto the back of Lance’ neck and actually succeeding with hitting him in the stomach with a knee. He pushed Lance away, not bothering letting him collect himself before he moved in for some elbow strikes. Keith managed to block off a punch for Lance as he moved his elbow to the side, practically hammering it down onto Lance who rolled out of the way before it could hit him.

Lance was quick to retaliate, sprinting over to Keith and getting into the first position before he took a shot at Keith's side. Keith tried to move out of the way and Lance went forward as he went backward.

Lance punched Keith in the face. Hard, too. Keith wasn't sure how it happened but he winced, his hands coming up and covering his nose. It had already been broken recently and wasn't a fan of being bruised.

“Shit, are you okay?” Lance moved his hands out of his face, trying to look at his nose. Keith got shot with such a rush of concern that it made him stumble back. He slapped Lance’s hand off. The concern hadn't felt bad but it wasn't his. Lance was unconsciously projecting. The emotions Keith felt were from Lance then. It wasn't his own and he could tell, could feel the strangeness of it.

Lance didn't reach out to him again, an apologetic look making itself at home on his features.

“I'm fine. Not even bleeding, see?” Keith moved his hand away to show it. Lance breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sorry. I think I got a bit too into it,” Lance looked genuinely guilty, at least.

“Yeah. I can tell. What's with the aggression?”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck, “I got annoyed with some dudes in my last block then I ran into some guy by accident and somehow made skin on skin contact with him and I guess he just… doubled up what I was feeling already.”

Keith looked at him seriously for a moment. “Do you think you could feed off of an opponent's feelings in battle?”

“I mean, probably? But if we're both pissed it might end up with us ripping each other's throats out.”

“Yeah but if you were able to keep your head clear. Keep like an anchor or something. I use my feelings for my fire a lot if you were able to do something like that it could work.”

Lance frowned, “In theory, yeah, I guess it could.”

“Do you want to try?” Keith asked Lance, sticking his hand out. It was wrapped to the wrist down. Lance looked at it a moment.

“You're not feeling angry, though.”

“I don't know. I feel like punching you for that nose hit earlier,” Keith smirked at Lance.

Lance considered Keith's arm for a moment longer before grinning. His face was sweaty, Keith could see drops of sweat that disappeared under his shirt. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were bright. Keith stared at his face before Lance gripped his forearm, his fingertips cool in comparison to Keith’s skin.

“If I get to use my powers, you should too,” Lance told him, making eye contact with Keith for a moment.

“You're going to end up singed as hell. Your powers aren't offensive.”

Lance shrugged, “Need to get used to fighting people with big powers, right?” He held eye contact with him for a moment.

“Yeah, I guess,” Keith finally answered, feeling weird like a frog was in his throat. Keith could feel Lance, in a strange way. Lance wasn't projecting but Keith could feel him there, just on the edge of his emotions, not quite breaching the border. And Keith could feel him taking what was Keith’s. It wasn't draining, Lance wasn't replacing them or even taking them, really. Keith didn't know how else to describe it.

Lance let go of his arm. And then the eye contact broke.

Both of them stepped back, going into first positions.

“Ready?” Lance asked

Keith paused a moment, reminding himself that it was fine. He could go full on fireball and for some reason, he knew that whatever he did Lance was going to be able to avoid getting hurt.

Keith allowed the fire to come from his feet first, then his hands, letting it climb up to his forearms before he allowed his hair to become fiery.

“You look like Ghost Rider, minus being a skeleton.” Lance grinned at him.

“Ready,” Keith rolled off the comment.

The sparring this time was different. Lance completely matched his intensity and purpose. It wasn't like he had completely taken up Keith's movements, he didn't even seem to be mocking them.

But he moved lightly on his feet with a bit more play this time, a bit more confidence. Keith didn't know that that was how he fought. He never thought of himself as the playful type.

He threw a fireball in Lance's direction and Lance ducked out of the way so fast he might've gotten whiplash.

“Dude!”

“You said it was fine.”

Lance let out a bright laugh. Keith found himself grinning.

Even with the flames there, Lance didn't shy away from trying to hut Keith. He was more careful, quicker to avoid jabs and punches even though Keith wasn't intending on burning him.

Lance managed to get a good hit into Keith's sides that caused his flames to go down for a moment. Keith was left feeling a little bit winded but he bounced back.

With rejuvenated energy, he returned the attack with one of his own. He kneed Lance, switching quickly into a kick that sent him going back. Lance just barely caught himself, his hand protecting his stomach before he realized that Keith was coming at him again. Lances hands went up, his forearms protecting his face this time. Keith turned off the fire on his arms so that he could hit Lance without worrying about burning him.

Keith broke the defensive position that Lance was in, holding him down and going for a hammer strike. He didn't actually hurt him. Just left his hand hovering above Lance’s neck.

“Still too easy to break,” Keith let go of Lance who landed onto his stomach. Lance rolled onto his back, his chest moving rapidly as he caught his breath. Keith left him on the mat ad he grabbed both of their water bottles. He came back and handed Lance’s his.

The room was 50° degrees hotter now, Keith could feel the rise in temperature. Even though he could withstand it better than Lance (who was really sweating now) it wasn't like he was impervious to feeling the heat. Keith sat down next to Lance on the floor, his fire off as he sat there and sipped at his water.

They didn't speak and Keith relished the quiet.

“I think you bruised my ribs with that last kick,” Lance brushed his hand gently over the point of contact.

“Sucks.”

“Oh, you're so mean to me, Keith. Even after all of our bonding. You let me into your emotions and you still treat me like this?” Lance whined.

“Maybe you're too whiny.” Keith poked Lance's forehead. Lance blinked, looking stunned.

Keith thought that it was a pretty expression on his face. Although, he realized, right then and there that most of Lance's expressions were pretty. Keith didn't know why it was hitting him now but he suddenly felt punched in the face by a rush of affection for Lance that left his chest feeling tight.

Shit, he's so pretty, repeated over and over in his head. Keith felt uncomfortable with the suddenness of it all, and how squeezing it felt.

The doors slid open, breaking Keith's concentration away from Lance's face.

Pidge stood at the door, her hair was pushed up by her glasses. Her laptop was in her arms, balancing precariously on her right forearm.

“Guys! Holy shit!” She came into the room, closing the door behind her.

“Pidge?” Lance sat up slowly before he turned to look at her.

“I got in.” There was a manic look to her eyes. “I hacked the fucking Galra systems. Zarkon can kiss my Jewish ass!” They cheered, cackling. They were purely ecstatic.

“Wait, really?” Keith stood up, going over to them.

“I'll tell Hunk!” Lance stood up quickly.

“He's already on his way. Don't think you can steal my thunder, McClain,” Pidge pointed at him.

“What do you have access to?” Keith asked, wanting to focus on the actual information they just gained.

“Almost everything. There's a few that I can't quite crack. Hunk is going to help me out there since I can't really ask Matt to asks the system to politely let me in,” Pidge bit their lower lip. “But we have everything we need for now.” Pidge sat on the floor.

“What did you guys do in here? It feels like a sauna.” Pidge stood up from the metal floor and instead went and sat on a mat, taking off their flannel and trying their hair back so it was off of their neck.

“We were sparring,” Lance told them, settling next to them on his knees.

Pidge looked at Keith, making him feel vulnerable since their glasses weren't there to add a layer of protection.

“We were using powers,” Keith informed them, sitting on their other side. Pidge let out a hum and brushed it off.

“Well, anyway. I got all the list of current members they have, meaning that now we can track down whoever we want.” Pidge pulled up the file, opening it. Inside, there were tons of smaller files. And in those small files seemed to be the names they were looking for. The list of prospects was longer than and more filled than that of actual members, but Keith was thrown off by just how many supporters had joined the Galra ranks.

“And then we have potential prospects too.” Pidge pulled up another list, opening it up on the other side of the screen next to the first list.

The door opened up again, this time Hunk came in. “I came here as soon as I could.” He joined the three of them on the floor, Lance scooting so that he could sit between Lance and Pidge.

“Oh wow. Pidge this data, this mainframe is…” Hunk looked over it, eyes wide.

“I know, Hunk. I know.” Pidge placed their hand on Hunk’s arm. Lance looked over at Keith, their eyes catching immediately and easy. Lance was just as confused as Keith was.

“Some of the files are still encrypted, though. I was wondering, if, Hunk. You would be my second hacker in command?”

“Oh, Pidge,” Hunk swooned. “I accept.” He placed his hand over his heart, wiping away pretend tears.

“Pidge. Hunk. The information.” Keith pulled them back down to Earth.

“Right, right,” Pidge returned their attention to the screen, “Our glorious insider information.”

“How are the names sorted?” Keith asked.

“Well, first they have a system of going by a gem then within those age groups it goes by abilities. So people with elemental based powers, like you, Keith, would be grouped in one of these folders,” Pidge circled a folder with her cursor, “And then it goes down by last name. Alphabetical, of course, because the Galra may be horrible but they're not monsters.

“After that, you can click on somebody's folder. And then you get all of the information you need on them. Age. Location. What exactly are the details of what they could do, some of the prospects ones are vague but once you're in they seem to know the full extent of everything.”

“Miscellaneous abilities?” Lance questioned.

“I guess even the Galra can't determine how to categorize certain powers,” Pidge shrugged.

“If they don't know the full potential some people can get, then are they hacking into the legal systems?” Keith questioned.

“Seems that way, yeah. The data they have is going based on when someone's abilities first appear when they're young. They don't have people in there that are like Lance where their powers come unexpectedly at an older age. Speaking of which, Lance, did you even ever get into the systems?”

“I think so?” Lance looked at Hunk. “I didn't tell my parents or any family though…”

“Maybe Allura handled it?” Hunk shrugged.

“Maybe.” Pidge typed something quickly, pulling up a list of users. “I've compiled all of the names of current Galra members our age that live nearby. We can scan for someone who might be easy to access here, and then get them to “sway” Lance to the side of the Galra, or at least have Lance pretend to be interested enough to get into the Galra.”

Keith stared at the list of names. It had been a while since he had been in school and aside from the people in Voltron, he didn't talk to anyone else his age. Keith didn't recognize anyone he used to go to school with, at least. As far as he knew, none of them would consider the Galra in a million years.

Lance was studying the list with intensity. His brows were furrowed as he stared at the names, chewing his lower lip as his eyes scanned the screen. Hunk was next to him, staring just as intense as Lance was. He was reading faster, pouting a bit as he did. Then he stopped, grabbing Lance's arm.

Pidge looked at Hunk in interest. Keith looked back at the list, trying to see what name made Hunk react that way.

“Lance.” He squeezed his best friends arm gently. “Look.” He pointed to a name on the screen, tapping it. Lance sucked in a breath.

“Montgomery, Ezor.” Pidge read aloud, “You guys know her?”

In her profile was a picture of a girl. Her powers were labeled as miscellaneous and described to be a form of camouflage. Keith knew her face.

“The gym—”

“She's one of my best friends.”

Keith looked at Lance.

“I knew she had powers. But I didn't know that she would be the type to—” Lance gesture wildly with his hands, at a loss for words.

“When your school got attacked, she was a cheerleader up front. I remember her. She kept going invisible.” Keith frowned, “I fought her. The last attack, I fought with her.”

“Is she a good fighter?” Lance asked.

“Fast. Flexible as hell.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Ezor alright,” Hunk mumbled.

“Do you guys recognize anyone else on the list?” Pidge asked.

Both Lance and Hunk shook their heads.

“Well, we know who we're targeting, then.” Pidge looked at Lance. “Look on the bright side,” she began, “At least you're already close to her?” She offered it up weakly.

“Yeah.” Lance seemed far off.

“Tomorrow. At school. Lance, try to get her alone during lunch. Talk about your powers spew some shit about hating the whole government system of being required to tell them about your abilities, stuff like that. If you're not in the system yet, which you should check with Allura about, then it'll just add bonus points to the cause,” Keith instructed.

“I'll talk to her tomorrow, ” Lance replied.

Hunk placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. Keith looked away, looking back at the computer.

“How long do you think you can get the rest of the stuff decrypted?” Keith asked.

“Dunno. Hunk?” Pidge looked at him.

“A day? Tops,” Hunk nodded. He let go of Lance, who seemed far off now, untouchable to Keith.

“Good.”

The ball had begun to roll.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Sorry for the hiatus, I took a break from the whole of voltron since its... Yknow. A wreck but I love these characters and this story still  
> 2\. I know what to do for each chapter here on out I'm hoping it reaches 25 but I'm not making a promise. My winter break is coming up so I'm going to try to mass write!


	15. Lance

Finding out that one of your best friends is a Galra member was super weird. Now knowing that Ezor had joined the Galra and hearing her talk about her “martial arts class” was even weirder. Ezor was talking about a girl that she had met through the class. She spoke with the French fry in her hand, the two of them were in the mall food court. Lance thought it was probably a better setting than school, or completely private, in case something went wrong. 

“And I don't think I've ever felt so comfortable with people in my life. It's like they really know me, you know?” Ezor sighed, “And Zethrid is just so… she's so cool.” A dreamy smile was on her face.

“Sorry, Lance! I didn't mean to talk for so long.” Ezor suddenly stopped, “You wanted to talk about something?” Ezor asked, looking at him with wide and curious eyes.

“Uhhh, yeah, yeah I did.” Lance looked around, seeing no one suspicious. He could feel Ezor's curiosity and be relieved that everyone around them was too absorbed in themselves to really pay attention to them. 

Ezor was still watching him, waiting.

“When did your… powers, kick in?” Lance asked.

“My powers?” Ezor was surprised, clearly not expecting the conversation to take that turn.

Lance nodded.

Ezor hummed in thought, tilting her head to the side. “I think when I was in elementary school, a little bit before they met. We were playing hide and go seek and I just turned invisible.”

“And you never bothered to learn how to use your powers, right?” 

“Well, I didn't see the point. The government doesn't like it when people just use their powers casually, and my mom was a little freaked by it. I like, knew I wasn't going to become the next Paladin or whatever, so I just did the bare minimum even though when I was scared I used to just turn invisible without my own control, ” Ezor shrugged, playing with her milkshakes straw.

“You're using past tense. You can control your powers now?” Lance followed up.

“Where'd all of this coming from?” Ezor looked at him skeptically.

“I'm just… curious. Listen, Ezor, where did you learn to control your powers?” Lance asked, adding in a hint of urgency in his voice. Ezor grabbed the bait and he watched as her eyes lit up with realization.

“My martial arts class. It's for people with abilities who actually want to learn and use them without feeling ashamed or worrying about the cops being called on us, or, worse, Voltron.” Ezor scowled at the name. 

“You don't like Voltron?” Lance acted surprised.

“Just between you and me, I think they're just dogs of the government. Used to keep peace with the citizens like ‘hey these guys use their powers for the benefit of everyone else! Isn't that great?’.”

“You… don't think that?” Lance silently invited her to continue.

“Well. I think it's a bit stupid, isn't it? What's the point of having powers when you can't use them when you want, how you want. The feeling of suppression is terrible, right? When you're not using then you feel… Weird?” Ezor asked him this time.

“How did you know that I—”

“C’mon Lance, I'm pretty but I'm not stupid.” Ezor rolled her eyes, “No one asks these kinds of things unless they have abilities too.”

Lance relaxed his shoulders, “You won't tell anyone?”

Ezor smiled at him, grabbing his hand. “Of course not! We're best friends, your secrets are my secrets to keep.” Lance felt a shock of guilt at that statement, and he bit it down, trying not to give it Ezor in return.

“When did they appear? You never had them before and your waaay past the age of them showing.” Most people showed in elementary school, or late middle school if they were really pushing it.

“The beginning of the school year. I don't know what happened but one day I woke up and I could just  _ feel things _ ,” Lance told her. It did feel good to tell someone who wasn't Hunk or Keith or a part of Voltron that. He hadn't even told his families about his powers.

“What kind of things?” Ezor asked, her curiosity peaked. 

“Emotions. But not mine, I always feel my own. But everyone else emotions. I can feel your ls right now, the girl over there, that man’s.” Lance gestured to the people, pointing with his chin, “And I can see things too. They're auras or something like that. Like you're a really pretty red, almost a magenta, but sometimes you get really bright, almost a strawberry red.”

Lance thought that Keith and Ezor were similar to color. But Keith was more cherry at times, a little bit more to Lances liking since he never got super bright, and tended to stay in more subtle tones. 

Ezor's features brightened up. “That's super cool! Is that all you can do?”

“I can share my feelings too, I think. Like after the attack at school I hugged my mom and I wanted her to be calm. When I touched her, and it only works with skin-on-skin, but when I touched her she calmed down. Stopped crying and acted like it was just me stunning my toe.” Lance recounted the story to Ezor.

“Wow… Lance. That's—” 

“There's one more thing, too,” Lance cut her off. “The other day I was hanging out with this guy. And we touched, and he knows about my powers so he let me touch him.”

“Lance, please don't tell me you're having kinky power sex with someone. Wait. Who's this guy? What's his name? You haven't mentioned him before!”

“It's just some gig, it doesn't matter.”

“Well, clearly it matters if you told him about your abilities,” Ezor rolled her eyes. “You didn't tell me till just now. Does Hunk know? Does he know the guy too?”

“No. No, Hunk doesn't know… anything,” Lance lied. “I told you first because he's had his powers for so long. He knows how to control them. Super strength is easy and it's more accepted than controlling people's feelings.”

“Or turning invisible,” Ezor squeezed his hand, her expression soft and understanding. “So, you were touching a boy?”

Lance cleared his throat, looking away. “Yeah, I was. He's just some guy I met on a forum, about people with powers and stuff. But yeah we were touching and I wasn't projecting my emotions to him and he wasn't really projecting his feelings to me but I still took them? In a way. We made eye contact and for a moment I could feel, like, everything from his side of things.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's hard to describe. But I want to do it again.”

“And you don't know how.” Ezor nodded, “Do you just want to do this with him or…?” She smirked at Lance, who's cheeks heated up.

“Shut up, Ezor,” this time he let the feelings come to her. Ezor let out a bright laugh, relishing in his straight up embarrassment. 

“You're so red right now!” Ezor squeezed his hand again, leaning closer. “And wow. Dude. You're like in love, aren't you?”

“I'm not in love. I'm just embarrassed, and curious, and eager to try it again.”

Ezor quirked a brow at him, “Okay.” She sounded like she didn't believe him. She started to clean up her trash.

“Let's keep walking for a little bit, alright?” Ezor told him standing to throw away trash.

“Sounds good,” Lance was waiting for an invitation. He got up and threw away his own trash. Ezor looped her arm into his hanging off of him now.

“We can talk some more. And I can tell you all about my martial arts class and if it sounds interesting enough, maybe you can join me? There's a meeting tonight.” There it was.

“From what I've heard about it, it sounds liberating.” Lance played along.

“Oh it is, it really is,” Ezor grinned. “Who knows, maybe you'll like it enough to join. And then you can tell that boy about it too.” 

Ezor pulled him off into a random direction of the mall. “So, what color is that lady over there?” Ezor changed the topic, pointing at a random woman in a jewelry store.

“She’s a really dark green.”

“What does that mean?” 

“She’s probably someone who’s pretty clever, maybe super smart. I notice that people who are green are more clever, reds tend to be impulsive, yellows seem to be understanding, purples are leaders, and blues are weird. Mainly because I’m blue but I don’t really know what that means,” Lance shrugged.

“Are those the only colors?”

“There are a few more.”

“That’s cool,” Ezor nodded. She kept pulling Lance around the entire day. The last time Lance had gone to the mall, there had been an emergency, an attack on the city that Ezor had participated in. And Lance.

Lance had been at the attack too and it wasn’t until just then, as he was walking side by side with Ezor that he realized that hey. Maybe. Just maybe, the Galra knew that there was a hero who dabbled with emotions among the Voltron ranks. Ezor hadn’t mentioned it, but if she knew and if she put the two together, she most likely wasn’t going to tell him that she knew.

“Do you really hate Voltron?” Lance asked her, a bit later in the day when they had paused to look in a store.

Ezor stopped the scanning she was doing, resting her hands on a really fluffy jacket she couldn’t stop running her fingers through. “I don’t hate them. They’re just annoyed, and I’ve grown out of that childlike wonder that used to be there. Why be amazed by a couple of dudes who all of have obvious powers when I can just enjoy my own?” Ezor lifted a hand, and Lance watched as it slowly turned invisible before turning visible again as she moved it.

 

“Besides, if Voltron really cared as much as they say they do, they should actually try to do something for people with powers rather than just play... superhero.” Ezor’s upper lip curled with unhidden disdain. “I mean, one of them doesn’t even use his powers and he can set things on fire.”

“Fire Starter, you mean?”

“Yeah! He just fights without them.”

“How do you know that?” Lance raised a brow.

Ezor didn’t falter or pause, “The news, duh.” She rolled her eyes at him and Lance could feel that she thought she had him convinced. No lack of confidence and the joy of having a secret to herself. “You used to have a crush on Paladin, I’m surprised you don’t know all about the other heroes.”

“I know enough, I guess I just didn’t see those reports. And I didn’t have a crush on Paladin!” Lance jumped to his defense.

Ezor was the one to raise her brows this time. “You told me he gave you your sexual—” 

“Ezor,” Lance hissed, “What happens in a slumber party, stays there.” He told her, staring her down. 

Ezor laughed, grinning at him, “Okay.” She grabbed the jacket that she had been touching and lifted it up. “Do you think this will be cute on me?” She showed him the pink, fuzzy jacket, holding it up next to her. 

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” Lance agreed. 

“Sweet,” Ezor grinned. 

The two of them spent the rest of the day wandering the mall. Lance was relieved to actually buy stuff, this time. Not that he had been unhappy the last time he was at the mall, it was just that it was nice to chill and shop and not leave in a rush because of an attack on the town. Lance was still a bit worried that Ezor knew that he was trying to sneak into the Galra but he couldn’t actually detect any hints from her that she did know. 

His doubts got pushed aside when he drove Ezor home. Ezor paused before she got out of his car. “Give me your phone,” she told him, stretching her hand out for it. Lance felt a shot of anxiety rush through him. He was careful, made sure no detection of him working on Voltron was ever on that phone. The closest he had was Coran and Allura’s contact numbers being in there, but Lance was still sneaky.

He liked to think so, anyway. 

Pidge had given Lance a burner phone for the mole mission, too, so it wasn’t like Ezor was going to see any of those messages.

Mole Mission was a bad way to refer to it. Lance needed to brainstorm that more.

“Lance.” Ezor poked him, “Phone? I’m not going to snoop and see your nudes if that’s what you’re worried about.” Ezor gave him a grin that was a little bit too sharp, a little too unsettling. Yet Lance detected no hints of deception from her, and even if there was, he was sure this was the first test in his loyalty.

Lance handed her his phone and she hummed under her breath as she scanned through it. “There we go!” Ezor cheerily handed the phone back over to him. 

“What’d you do?” Lance asked any app she used had been closed.

“I gave you the address of my class. And the date for the next meeting. You definitely come, just see how you like it.” Ezor told him, still smiling. It felt less predatory now that she gave him his phone back. 

“I will,” Lance assured her. 

“Sweet!” Ezor threw her arms around Lance, leaning over to the driver's side, giving him a strong hug. “I’ll see you later,” Ezor got out the car, grabbed her bags, and all but skipped into her apartment building. 

Lance sat in his car for a second before he drove off. He checked his calendar, seeing the address, date, and time there for him. Grabbing the burner phone, he sent a quick message to the group chat before he drove home. Compared to Ezor, Lance didn’t buy a lot. So he just grabbed his stuff, said hello to his family briefly (Veronica grunted at him when he passed her, her nose down in a textbook), and disappeared down into his basement.   
  


**[Lance]**

Ezor gave me the address for their meetings

Well, like, I think so anyway

She hasn’t explicitly said that it’s the Galra

But I’m 99% sure that it is

  
  


**[Pidge]**

Sweet

Time to stick you with a tracker and then send you off into a den of lions

 

**[Lance]**

Is that a probing joke?

 

**[Keith]**

Lance, are you sure you want to do this???

 

**[Pidge]**

Are you getting cold feet keith?

 

**[Keith]**

No

Doesn't mean I can’t give Lance the option to back out

 

**[Lance]**

I’m fine, things have already started

 

**[Hunk]**

What’s the address? Just in case something goes wrong

 

**[Lance]**

I doubt somethings going to go wrong, it’s just the first date

 

Lance sent the address to the group chat.

**[Keith]**

When is the meeting happening?

 

**[Lance]**

This wednesday

 

**[Hunk]**

I should be able to finish adding in the recording device by then

His other phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out. Surprisingly, Keith was texting him privately.   
  


**[Ponyta]**

Do you have swim after school on friday

 

**[Knock-off Freud]**

No, why?

 

**[Ponyta]**

Good

 

**[Knock-off Freud]**

???

Keith

Keeeeeith

You cna’t just ask that and not answer

Can’t**

 

Lance waited for a few more moments before realizing that he wasn’t going to get an answer from Keith. He sighed and spread out across his bed. Wednesday was in three days, Lance still felt that it was going to take too long until Wednesday was actually there. And he was in a Galra base.   
  


Wednesday, of course, did come. It didn’t take as long as Lance had expected it to. 

Lance found himself at Pidge’s house. She was pinning a tracker on him, while Hunk tested out the camera and sound systems on it. Keith was leaning over Hunk’s shoulder, staring at the screen. “Okay, Lance, do you think you can take a walk around the block?” Hunk asked him.

“It should be able to see clearly, even if you’re at the base. But we still need to double check you moving doesn’t fuck it up.” Pidge finished attaching the tracker to him. “And it should go completely undetected. I think it’s one of my better works,” Pidge flicked the tracker where it rested on his letterman jacket. 

“Of course I still want to tinker with it, want to make it less noticeable,” Pidge stared into the small pin that they made.

“Pidge, back up from the camera. Please,” Hunk added the please almost as an afterthought. 

Pidge back away from Lance. “Oh! It’s focusing,” Hunk leaned in, looking intensely at the screen.

“Alright. Go for your walk around the block,” Pidge clapped their hands together, “Keith. Join him.”

“Why?” Keith asked.

“Because we need to be able to see if we actually understand someone other than Lance,” Pidge pushed Lance and Keith told the door. 

“Do we need to scream, or something?” Lance asked. “I mean. To check the sound settings and all of that.”

“It’s not theater, Lance, we don’t need to check the levels. Hopefully,” Hunk shrugged. 

“Have a good walk!” Pidge waved at them as they left. 

The two of them started a lap around the block. “Are you going to explain your cryptid text message or…?” Lance trailed off, looking at Keith.

“What cryptid text?”

“You asked me if I had swim on Friday, and I said no and you only replied with ‘good’ and then left me on read.” Lance continued, explaining Keith’s own messages to him.

“Oh, right,” Keith said as if that cleared everything up. “I was just asking because I wanted to see if we could get in another training session. With our powers, again.”

“You could’ve just said that.” Lance smiled at Keith, “Power training sounds good. It was… nice the last time we did it,” Lance didn’t know how else to describe other than nice. 

“I needed to make sure that Hunk and Pidge could come first.”

Lance felt sudden disappointment. He shoved it aside. “Pidge and Hunk are going to join us Friday?” He hoped his voice didn’t sound as stilted as he felt like it did.

“Yeah, they both agreed to it.” Keith nodded.

“That’s good. All of us training together should be good,” Lance wasn’t sure why he was suddenly repeating him.

“You’ve never done power training with us before. And like you said, it was nice the last time we did it,” Keith glanced over at him. They had made their way back around to the front of Pidge’s house. 

Their conversation died when they got inside. “Everything working okay?” Keith asked Hunk, who gave him a thumbs up.

“Sounds great, looks great. No connection or weird sound issue from clothes. It should still work well even in the base,” Hunk turned around in his chair, smiling at Lance. It was a bit reassuring. His phone buzzed with a message and he looked down at his phone.   
  


**[Pyramid Schemer]**

Can’t wait for you to come tonight

I told some of my friends here and they’re excited to meet you

 

**[Knock-off Freud]**

Are you telling them about my devilishly handsome looks?

I’m excited for tonight :)

  
  


Ezor sent Lance several emojis in response. Lance put his phone away. 

“I’m ready if everything is set over here,” Lance told them.

“We’re all good to go,” Hunk nodded his head. “And we’ll be watching you the entire time.”

“It shouldn’t get too intense. It’s just your first meeting. Still, stay on guard and try not to draw any suspicion to you, like Hunk said, we’re going to be here the entire time,” Keith touched Lance’s bicep, resting his hand there for a moment. His touch was incredibly warm, like hot spring water. The sensation stayed even after Keith’s hand left.

“In case of anything, we’ll call you and get you out of there, if anything is going sour. If you want us to pull you out, just tap the pin three times,” Pidge tapped their own chest.

“Got it,” Lance could handle this with no sweat. “Have fun being voyeurs.”

  
  


The Galra base, or rather, this specific meet up point, was actually in a dojo. Lance stepped inside and was greeted by a large, English bulldog who was either glaring or it was just the default expression. It sniffed him, drooling over his shoes. The other people in the main room turned and looked at him, whispering to themselves. Lance could feel waves of suspicion.

“Lance!” Ezor’s familiar voice was comforting after the glances he was receiving. “Move, Stella,” Ezor told the bulldog who walked away. Once Stella had waddled off to somewhere else, Ezor wrapped Lance into a tight hug and he let himself sink into her excitement. “I’m so happy you actually came!”

“Uh, yeah. So am I. Was I supposed to bring anything special to work out in?” Lance asked her.

“Work out? It’s after hours, and it’s just a talking meeting. Think of it as a sort of AA,” Ezor shrugged. “Let me introduce you to my friends!” She grabbed Lance’s hand, pulling him further into the dojo. She said hello and told him the few names to random people they would see. She pulled him into a room on the right that was mainly just a giant mat, a wall of mirrors to his right, and a lot of punching bags and random other equipment throughout. There was a sitting area before the mats, separated by a small fence. 

Ezor tugged him onto the mat, where there were more chairs and a few just up in front. “Lance!” She finally stopped when she had reached a group of girls. Lance recognized Zethrid immediately, along with the other one who had been there at the attack too. Her cat was curled around her shoulders.

“This!” Ezor began, her smile becoming a bit dreamier, “Is Zethrid. That’s Narti,” she gestured to the cat woman, “And Axca,” she let go of Lance to go up to Zethrid instead. Zethrid wrapped an arm around Ezor’s waist and looked at Lance. “Guys, this is my best friend, Lance.”

“Hi,” Lance looked at them. “I know you,” he looked at Zethrid and then at Narti, “Don’t I?”

Ezor looked between Zethrid and Lance, bouncing back and forth on her feet. “Well, you kinda do?” Ezor said, “You know the whole event that happened at school, don’t you?” 

“I was there, I can’t really forget it.”

“Right. You were. Well, Zethrid and Narti here were part of it. It’s how I found this place, actually!” Ezor cheerily informed him.

“Ezor, is this a  _ Galra  _ meeting?” Lance pretended to act surprised, whispering ‘Galra’ like it was a curse word.

“You can say it, Lance. Everyone here is a member of the Galra.”

“That includes you, doesn’t it?” Lance asked her.

“You can leave, if it makes you uncomfortable,” Ezor moved away from Zethrid, grabbing Lance’s hands this time. “But no one here is evil. They attacked our school because what other way can they let us know that they exist? And they never even hurt anyone, aside from the gas, but that was more of a distraction!” Ezor began to make excuses.

“I know it seems bad,” Ezor continued. “And I know that the Galra has done things in the past, and even now, that seems crazy and radical. But if you stay, if you just hear what they have to offer you, what Lotor can give us all, I think you’ll like it too. The Galra have already given me more comfort and training with my abilities than my parents have ever even tried.”

Lance stood there for a moment as if he was considering her. Ezor was genuine, it seemed. And Lance didn’t really have a choice, he was there for a job. “I’ll stay. But it doesn’t mean that I’m going to join.” That was enough for Ezor to grin again. 

“You should sit with us! We can fill you in on anything that gets you confused,” Ezor let go of one of his hands to grab Zethrid’s.

“Is that okay?” Lance asked, looking over at the other three who hadn’t really spoken. Axca was giving him a weird look, she narrowed her eyes at him, tilted her head to the side and stared deep down into his soul. 

“More than okay. Sit down,” Zethrid all but pushed him into a chair. 

“What are your abilities?” Axca asked him, still staring at him with the same, skeptical, glare. Narti signed something at him. Lance didn’t know any ASL.

Ezor leaned over to him, “Narti’s mute, by the way. Axca and Zethrid can understand sign language, I’m still learning.” She told him. 

Narti signed again, “You feel like you’re some sort of psychic.” Axca translated for him.

“How can you tell?” Lance asked.

“Kova,” Narti stroked the top of her cats head, “I see through him, and he sees more than we could ever imagine. It’s very clear that you’re an empath to him.”

“Ezor was saying that you can see colors around people,” Zethrid piped up. 

“Auras,” Lance explained. “I’m an empath, so I can basically just feel everyone's feelings? But, yeah, I see auras. All for of you guys are a red tone if you were curious,” Lance shrugged. "I guess it's 'birds of a feather' or something like that."

“You left out that you can manipulate emotions too,” Ezor boasted of his abilities like they were her own.

“It’s not really manipulating,” Lance felt gross when she used that word. 

“What can you do?” Axca asked.

“I can make people feel emotions too, if I touched your face, I could make you feel angry, for instance. I think I can maybe transfer my own feelings to someone else, too, or something like that. I don’t really know, I just developed these,” Lance gave her a sheepish smile.

“Just developed?” Axca asked.

“Yeah,” Lance nodded.

“He’s a bit of a late bloomer,” Ezor touched Lance’s arm. “He’s very sensitive over it.”

“I am not,” Lance looked at her sharply and Ezor just laughed. More people had started to fill the room, sitting in chairs and taking up spots if they weren’t already claimed. “So, I know Ezor can turn invisible, and Zethrid is strong. What can you guys do?” Lance asked them.

“Aside from my psychic connection to Kova, I’m a telepath. If I wanted to, I could control your mind right now.” Narti signed quickly, but Axca was able to keep up with no issue. “The training her has allowed me to focus my powers to the point where I could probably control this entire room. But I need physical contact first as you do.”

Lance knew that not all powers were inherently evil, even if they seem that way up front. But someone who was on the side of the Galra who could do that? That was very bad news.

“What about you?” Lance looked at Axca. 

She was about to tell him before the whole room became hushed. Lance looked around, wondering what, or who had caused that reaction. 

A man had entered the room. He didn’t look much older than Lance, at the most, he was in his mid-twenties. And to his surprise, the man saw him too. He walked over to Lance, Ezor beaming up at him when he did. 

“Ezor said that she had a friend who was accompanying her tonight. I’m assuming that’s you?” The man looked down at him and Lance felt that he should stand, both to get his face for the camera and because it felt wrong to be sitting like this. The man was tall, Lance and him almost matching up in height. His hair was long and white, which stood out against his tanned skin, and his features were sharp. He held Lance’s gaze steadfast, his eyes bore into him in a way that made Lance feel itchy. 

“Hi, I’m Lance,” Lance put on his best parent-pleasing smile and offered his hand to the man.

“Welcome Lance, my name is Lotor.” Lotor smiled back at him and Lance felt slimy. He felt even more slimy when Lotor actually grabbed his hand and shook it. Lance didn’t like the way he felt. Didn’t like the way the purple danced around Lotor in his aura, it wasn’t like Shiro’s purple, and it wasn’t as light or pink as Allura’s own odd shade of purple.

“Everyone, this is Lance. It’s his first meeting with us,” Lotor placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder and Lance turned around so that all of the members there saw his face. 

A scattering of ‘welcomes’ and ‘hellos’ came from the crowd. 

Lotor turned and looked at Lance again, “Welcome to the Galra. Take a seat.” His hand slipped away from Lance and he sat back down next to Ezor, who grabbed his hand. 

“Axca, if you please,” Lotor looked over at her. Axca nodded and stood, joining him up there.

Lance squeezed Ezor’s hand automatically as Axca led them into some sort of mantra. He didn’t even try to follow along, just listening.

He had officially stepped into the snake pit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am but a litle creeture... unhappy with this chapter

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my superhero au of hell because this is gonna be a beast for me to write  
> title taken from a wolf alice song  
> shout out to @ aweadrianee and @ yngsaints on tumblr for helping me make this thing!  
> msg me on tumblr @ trans-riot or on instagram @ electricpurity (i also live for #validation so feel free to comment)


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